UC-NRLF 
 
 SB ME Dflfl 
 
 
THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL PAPERS 
 
 v ^^^^^^B 
 St Oswald 
 
 and 
 
 The Church of Worcester 
 
 By 
 
 J. Armitage Robinson, D.D. 
 
 Fellow of the Academy 
 Dean of Wells 
 
 London 
 
 Published for the British Academy 
 
 By Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press 
 
 Amen Corner, E.G. 
 

 
 CONTENTS 
 
 ST OSWALD AND THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER .... 
 
 APPENDIX : 
 
 A. Worcester Charters of St Mary's before St Oswald's Time 
 
 B. Wynsige and the Monks at Worcester .... 
 
 C. Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury 
 
 PAGE 
 3 
 
 . 22 
 
 . 33 
 
 38 
 
ST OSWALD AND THE CHURCH OF 
 WORCESTER 
 
 WHEX Osbern, the precentor of Canterbury in the early days 
 after the Conquest, re-wrote the Life of St Dunstan, he described 
 that saint's passage from the abbey of Glastonbury to the bishopric 
 of Worcester as involving no change of allegiance c from the 
 Virgin ' he passed ' to the Virgin, from the Mother of the Lord to 
 the Mother of the Lord * : or, as we might put it more plainly, from 
 St Mary of Glastonbury to St Mary of Worcester. 1 The high-flown 
 style in which Osbern wrote, and the historical errors which dis- 
 figured his Work, soon called forth another Life of St Dunstan, 
 written by a successor of Osbern in the precentorship, the historian 
 Eadmer, the friend and biographer of St Anselm. Eadmer, in his 
 preface, gives as an example of his predecessor's inexactness the fact 
 that he had said that the cathedral church of Worcester was dedicated 
 to the honour of the Blessed Mary the Mother of God, whereas when 
 Dunstan was bishop its dedication was to St Peter the Prince of the 
 Apostles. 2 It was not long before a third Life of St Dunstan came 
 from the pen of William of Malmesbury. He passes over the work 
 of his contemporary Eadmer in silence, but he loses no opportunity 
 of denouncing the ignorance of Osbern. As he was writing for the 
 monks of Glastonbury, who were particularly eager at that time to 
 assert their share in the glories of Dunstan, his depreciation of the 
 Canterbury Chanter, as he calls him, would not come amiss. In his 
 interpretation of the vision in which Dunstan beheld St Peter handing 
 him a sword, he says : c Blessed Peter handed him his sword, because 
 he grudged him not his own seat at Worcester. For the bishop's 
 throne at Worcester had not yet passed to the name of the Blessed 
 Mother of God.' After exposing the mistake which Osbern had 
 made on this point, he adds : e I learn from this that his historical 
 investigations have not gone very far, since he does not know the 
 churches of his own country.' 3 In a later passage he gives an 
 explanation of the change of dedication at Worcester. ' Oswald', 
 
 1 Memorials of St Dunstan (Rolls S.), p. 106. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 1G3. ' 3 Ibid., p. 292. 
 
 A2 
 
4 '**' : ST : 6SWALD AND 
 
 he says, c furnished his episcopal see at Worcester with monks living 
 according to rule ; not indeed expelling the clerks hy force, but 
 circumventing them with holy guile. For in a purposeful neglect 
 he withdrew his presence from the church of Blessed Peter, whom 
 that see had served from ancient times, and exercised his pontifical 
 office with his monks in the church of the Blessed Mother of God, 
 which he had constructed in the churchyard. So, as the people 
 flocked to the bishop and the monks, the clerks were deserted, and 
 either took their flight or bowed to the monastic yoke/ l 
 
 We are not concerned for the moment with the fiction of Oswald's 
 e holy guile *, but only with the dedication of the church of Worcester. 
 Eadmer tells us that he had sought for information from Worcester 
 itself, 2 and we are fortunate in being able to appeal to a monk of 
 Worcester who was a little earlier than Eadmer, and was unusually 
 well informed as to the traditions of his own church. This was 
 Heming, who under Bishop Wulstan's guidance collected and 
 arranged the ancient charters of the see, and copied them out to 
 preserve them for posterity. 3 Heming's chartulary, as we now have 
 it, is a curiously composite document, the leaves of which have been 
 disarranged, so that it is not easy to discover its original form or 
 even to say whether it is all the work of one compiler. It has more 
 than one preface, and more than one conclusion : but this may be 
 only due to its original distribution into several books. One of these 
 conclusions comes on f. 152. He has just given an early charter 
 of a certain Wiferd and his wife Alta, and he adds to it a note to the 
 effect that after their death a stone structure bearing a cross was 
 erected over their grave and in their memory. By this cross, on 
 account of the level space, Oswald often used to preach to the people ; 
 because the church of the episcopal seat, which was dedicated in 
 honour of St Peter, was very small and could not contain the multi- 
 tudes that assembled, and that noble monastery of St Mary, which 
 he commenced for the episcopal seat and worthily brought to com- 
 
 1 Memorials of St Dunstan (Rolls S.), pp. 303 f. 2 Ibid., pp. 163 f. 
 
 3 Heming was not the first to collect the Worcester Charters into a Register. 
 A like attempt was made a hundred years before, possibly begun under the 
 direction of St Oswald himself. Fragments of this ' by far the earliest English 
 chartulary of which we have any trace' are preserved in the British Museum 
 (Nero E. 1) and among Lord Middleton's MSS. at Wollaton (see the description 
 by Mr. W. H. Stevenson in the Middleton Catalogue, published by the Historical 
 MSS. Commission, pp. 107 ff.) The order of the charters in the surviving pages 
 of this ancient register agrees with that followed by Heming : but happily 
 Heming did not follow his predecessor in the abbreviation of the text of the 
 documents. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 5 
 
 pletion, had not as yet been built. This stone structure remained 
 till the time of King Edward (the Confessor), when Alfric, the 
 brother of Bishop Beorhtheah (1033-8), desiring to enlarge the pres- 
 bytery of St Peter's, pulled it down and used the materials for his 
 building. 1 
 
 Here is a picture to the life, far more convincing than the story 
 of Oswald's ( hcly guile ' a parable of what was happening in the 
 English Church of the second half of the tenth century. A great 
 spiritual movement was in progress : the old limits were too narrow 
 for the new enthusiasm. It was no ( purposeful neglect 5 which made 
 Oswald leave the little sanctuary which had sufficed for the needs 
 and the ambitions of the past : it was the call of the people who 
 could find no room inside. And the old church was spared, as the 
 wattle-church at Glastonbury had been spared, when church after 
 church rose beside it ; and as, nearly a century later, the old church 
 of St Peter at Jumieges was spared, when the noble minster of 
 St Mary was built beside it by Abbot Robert, whom Edward the 
 Confessor afterwards brought to Canterbury. Oswald, who was one 
 of the foremost spirits of the new movement, had been a monk at 
 Fleury when that abbey, newly reformed, was at the height of its 
 fame. His conceptions of the dignity of divine worship doubtless 
 impelled him forward, and he would embrace with eagerness the 
 opportunity of raising a great ( basilica 5 , as he himself calls it, in 
 honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 
 We may now go back from these later authorities to Oswald 
 himself, and read what he wrote in 983, when he had been bishop 
 of Worcester for twenty-two years, and for half that time arch- 
 bishop of York as well. These are the opening words of a charter 
 (K. C. D. 637) issued in the year which had brought what he regarded 
 as the crowning mercy of his life. 
 
 6 The mercy of our Lord and our Redeemer ruling all the kingdoms 
 of the whole world : He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and 
 lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, 
 and to make them inherit the throne of glory. So to me Oswald, 
 Archbishop, though unworthy, He hath granted so great a boon of 
 His loving-kindness, that beyond all my expectation I should bring 
 to its completion the basilica which I have founded in my episcopal 
 see, to wit in the monastery of Worcester, in honour of Mary, 
 Mother of God, in the year of our Lord's Incarnation 983.' 
 
 We cannot fix with precision the year in which Oswald brought 
 
 1 Hearne, Hemingi Chartularium, ii. 342 ; B. C. S. 1007- 
 
6 ST OSWALD AN 7 D 
 
 monks to Worcester. At the outset of his episcopate he had formed 
 a small community at Westbury-on-Trym, as a model of monastic 
 life after the reformed manner. Then came his great new founda- 
 tion at Ramsey in Huntingdonshire, colonized in the first instance 
 from Westbury. Ramsey in its turn supplied the nucleus of the 
 settlement at Worcester. The great church of St Mary must have 
 taken from six to ten years to build : for we have positive evidence 
 that the monks were in Worcester by 977, if not sooner. But 
 Oswald was no rough-handed reformer. He would not force the 
 pace, and he would not obliterate the past. The little old church 
 of St Peter still stood and enjoyed the prerogative of the bishop's 
 stool. In a charter (B. C. S. 1166), misdated 965, but shown by the 
 signatures to belong to 991, the year before the archbishop's death, 
 a grant is said to be made ' with consent and license of the monastic 
 society of St Mary, the episcopal chair of whose monastery is known 
 to be consecrated to St Peter'. 
 
 This reverence for the past is a fine trait in Oswald's character, 
 and it goes far to explain the peaceableness which marked the reform 
 of his cathedral chapter. But we can well understand that his suc- 
 cessors would feel the incongruity of the situation thus created ; and 
 the church of St Mary was bound to succeed to the dignity to which 
 its superior merits entitled it. 
 
 It will seem to those who are familiar with the history of the 
 church of Worcester, as it has been written in recent times, that 
 the account given above is seriously defective, inasmuch as it makes 
 no reference to an earlier church of St Mary and to the monks who 
 at one time were attached to it, as evidenced by a series of notices 
 in charters from the eighth to the tenth century. It has become 
 customary to explain these notices by the supposition that there were 
 two churches side by side with a common cemetery between them, 
 the principal church being dedicated to St Peter and served by secular 
 clergy, while the other of lesser dignity had at one time at any rate 
 been served by monks. The two churches are thought of as receiving 
 benefactions separately and competing for public favour, until Oswald 
 put an end to their rivalry by rebuilding St Mary's on a grand scale 
 and transferring to it the bishop's chair and the ancient endowments 
 of St Peter's. 1 
 
 Instead of discussing point by point the difficulties inherent in 
 the situation thus outlined, it may be well to state at once that 
 
 1 The modern view is clearly stated in the Victoria County History of 
 Worcester, ii. 3 f ., 95 f. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 7 
 
 an examination of the Worcester charters down to the time of Oswald 
 has convinced me that there was no church of St Mary, and that 
 there was no community of monks at Worcester before the days of 
 the great reform in the latter part of the tenth century. 1 The 
 diligent labours of the monk Heming have preserved to us a mass of 
 information regarding the bishop's familia, as his cathedral chapter 
 in old days was called, such as is not available for any other church 
 in England. Here at least we are not left in such darkness as should 
 compel us to fall back on conjecture to reconstruct the history of the 
 past. It is true that not all the charters Heming copied are trust- 
 worthy documents. We have good reason to think him an honest 
 man, but Worcester in the days gone by was no exception to the 
 general run of ecclesiastical foundations which had thought it neces- 
 sary to supplement their genuine deeds with others modelled on 
 them, in order to secure their title to properties the charters of which 
 had perished by fire or perhaps had never existed at all. The period 
 of national decline under King Ethelred, which marks the close of 
 the tenth century as an age of decadence and disaster following an 
 age of intellectual progress and unbroken peace, would seem also 
 to have been a period in which churchmen were in constant danger 
 of being robbed of their inheritance and were driven to resort to 
 methods of self-protection which our modern conscience condemns 
 as pious frauds. Later ages were yet more prolific in the manu- 
 facture of documentary evidence; but Worcester has not in this 
 respect the evil record of Winchester and Abingdon and Sherborne 
 and other great foundations, thanks no doubt to the very fact that 
 Heming's work had preserved so much that without it would have 
 perished. But Heming, honest as he was, could only work with his 
 materials ; the charters lay before him, and he had no means of 
 appraising their authenticity : the science of criticism was not yet, 
 and only a very glaring forgery could be detected at the time he 
 wrote. We need not, therefore, be surprised if a considerable number 
 of his charters fail to satisfy the tests to which the modern student 
 must submit them. 
 
 These strictures do not affect the general history of the bishop's 
 familia at Worcester, as it may be read in Heming's chartulary. 
 For the charters which the members of the familia attest as witnesses 
 are not charters of gifts to themselves, but grants which the bishop 
 makes with their consent. They are usually grants for two or three 
 lives with a clause of reversion to the church a kind of extended 
 
 1 See Appendix A. 
 
8 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 lease such as we presently find in great numbers under Oswald's 
 own administration. There was no particular temptation to forge 
 a domestic charter of this nature, though it might suffer in the 
 copying through scribal errors and through the embodiment of later 
 notes as if they were part of the original document. 
 
 Our first sight of the familia at Worcester comes to us in a small 
 group of charters of the time of Bishop Denebert, whose episcopate of 
 twenty-four years (798-822) nearly coincided with the reign of Coenuulf 
 (796-821), the successor after a brief interval of the great Offa, king 
 of Mercia. One of these (B. C. S. 283) is the charter of a certain 
 Abbot Headda, making a disposition of his properties. It bears no 
 date, but as it closes with a grant intended to secure the prayers of 
 the Worcester familia for his kinsman, Bishop Heathored, it is perhaps 
 reasonable to place it shortly after that bishop's death in 798. It opens 
 with a prologue, which we shall meet again, concerning the fleeting 
 course of time and the need of following the example of the Greeks, 
 who committed their transactions to writing lest they should fall out 
 of memory. * Wherefore I, Headda, presbyter and abbot, with the 
 testimony of all the venerable familia at Worcester, bequeath my 
 own proper inheritance ; making this condition, that my heirs in the 
 line of my family of the male sex and in holy orders shall receive it, 
 so long as in my kindred there can be found a wise and prudent man 
 who can exercise ecclesiastical rule in due and monastic fashion ; and 
 that never shall it be subjected to the authority of laymen. But after 
 that, if in our family such churchmen shall be wanting, and they shall 
 be unworthy and unskilled, not knowing how to rule and govern it aright, 
 I order that without any obstacle it be rendered to the episcopal see 
 at Worcester that is to say, the lands at Dogedeswell and Tyreltun. 
 Besides these I also add an estate of my possession which is known 
 by the dwellers around it as Onnandun ; for the remedy of my soul 
 and of the soul of my kinsman, Bishop Heathored, and for the good 
 of all the souls of our kindred; because I am an alumnus of that 
 familia, and was educated and brought up at the threshold of the 
 church/ 
 
 We do not know what abbey Headda held, perhaps a small abbey 
 at Dowdeswell in Gloucestershire, the first property which he names. 
 It was common in those days for such houses to descend by inheri- 
 tance, and too often they fell into lay hands, a danger against which 
 Abbot Headda here seeks to provide. It is unfortunate that no names 
 of witnesses have been preserved, so that we must wait for the next 
 charter to give us the earliest list of the Worcester familia. Mean- 
 while it is something to have caught a glimpse of the familia, as the 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 9 
 
 training-ground of clergy who were afterwards to hold positions of 
 importance in the Church. 
 
 Our next charter (B. C. S. 304) is a grant by Bishop Denebert, 
 which he is careful to say is not made on his sole authority, but con- 
 jointly with his familia. It opens with the same prologue as Abbot 
 Headda^s charter, which may suggest that both were drawn up by the 
 same scribe and at about the same time. At any rate we shall find 
 reason for placing this charter^ which also bears no date, early in 
 Bishop Denebert^ s episcopate. The bishop grants, ' with the consent 
 and testimony of all the venerable familia at Worcester, to Balthun 
 the presbyter, a man good and true, five manses at Bearmodeslea, 1 to 
 hold for life and to bequeath to one heir whom he may choose ; but 
 after that heir's day it shall be rendered again without any dispute to 
 the church of Worcester, whence it was granted forth 5 . Another 
 property, eight manses at Collesburn, he grants to him for life and for 
 two heirs after him, then to return to the above-named church. 'And 
 be it known to all who read this charter, that not I alone have made 
 this grant, nor alone have confirmed this decree; but all the con- 
 gregation of the church of Worcester with me, because the priest 
 Balthun aforesaid is a dear and faithful friend to that congregation, 
 and an alumnus of that church/ 
 
 There is a grant to Abbot Balthun from King Coenuulf of the 
 monastery of Kempsey in Worcestershire, dated 799 (B. C. S. 295) ; 
 but we cannot be certain that in its present form it is an authentic 
 document. The bishop's grant which we have been considering may 
 perhaps belong to the preceding year, as Balthun is not spoken of as 
 an abbot, and this early date would agree well with the signatures. 
 For here we have the names of the familia nine presbyters, four 
 deacons, two clerks, and three other persons with no distinctive 
 appellation. As we do not find 'clericus' as a description in other 
 lists of the familia for the next century and a half, it may have come 
 in here by the inadvertence of a later copyist, who found out his 
 mistake and held his hand after he had written it twice. 
 
 In another charter (B. C. S. 307) Bishop Denebert with his familia 
 at Worcester grants land at Hereford to Eanswith, 'to possess it 
 while she lives, if I leave her to survive me in this world, on this 
 condition, that she be always subject to the church of Worcester and 
 its familia on this wise : namely, that she do always renew and cleanse 
 and increase the raiment of that church ; and that, after she shall go 
 the way of her fathers, the land aforesaid without contradiction be 
 assigned to the church of Worcester/ This document, again, is not 
 1 Barnsley, a member of Bibury (= Biga's bury). 
 
10 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 dated, but it is attested by twelve members of the familia with no 
 distinctive titles after their names. When we compare them with the 
 former list we find that six are the same four priests, and two other 
 persons, one of whom was there called e clericus ', and the other was 
 left undescribed. Six names are new, but four of them recur in 
 documents of 824 and 825 ; so that we are led to place this charter 
 towards the end of Bishop Denebert's time. 
 
 There is now a gap in our information until we come to the time of 
 Bishop Alhun. Then, in 849, we find seven priests, a ' praepositus ' 
 or provost, and a deacon (B. C. S. 455). Afterwards, in 855, there 
 are six priests, three deacons, and two others not described by any 
 title (B. C. S. 490). One of the priests is now the provost, and he 
 heads the list. Then under Bishop Werfrith, one of King Alfred's 
 learned men, we have lists for the years 872, 889, 892, 897, and 899 
 (B. C. S. 533, 559, 570, 575, 580). The numbers remain much the 
 same, and at first one or two of the old names survive from Bishop 
 Alhun^s days. We can watch the old men falling out, and new men 
 coming in to fill their places. A provost still appears in 872, but not 
 after that date. In 899 ' Cynelm abbas et diaconus ' heads the list, 
 and Abbot Cynelm stands in the same position in an undated Saxon 
 grant which belongs to the same period (B. C. S. 608). 
 
 After this our information fails us for more than half a century, 
 until we get a list again in 957, one of the last years of Bishop 
 Coenwald. This list (B. C. S. 993) is of special value, as it enables 
 us to observe the continuity of the familia, as represented in the 
 numerous lists which occur in Oswald's charters from 962 onwards. 
 But of this we must speak later. 
 
 We have thus had clearly in our view for a century and a half the 
 constitution of the church of Worcester the bishop and his familia, 
 a body of clergy who are joint holders with the bishop of the estates 
 of the church. There is but one church of Worcester, and but one 
 familia. And there is no hint anywhere of monasticism ; for though 
 at the close of the ninth century we find the list headed for a brief 
 period by an abbot, we cannot safely conclude even that the man who 
 bore this title was himself a monk, much less that the society he 
 presided over was monastic. 
 
 There seems, therefore, to be no room for a church of St Mary or 
 for a community of monks. The suggestion that there was such a 
 church side by side with St Peter's appears to be quite a modern one, 
 based only on notices to be found in some of the early Worcester 
 charters. But the evidence which at first sight seems to support such 
 a theory will be found on examination to melt away altogether. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 11 
 
 The number of Worcester charters preserved to us in some form or 
 other from the earliest days down to the time of St Oswald's accession 
 is considerably over a hundred. In sixteen of these we find a mention 
 of the church or monastery of St Mary. Each of these charters must 
 be dealt with separately in order to determine its claim to authen- 
 ticity. 1 The result of such an examination will show that not one of 
 them is trustworthy, so far at least as its reference to St Mary's 
 church is concerned. One or two examples may here be given to 
 show how the mention of St Mary's has come in. 
 
 The earliest charter which mentions St Mary's is B. C. S. 165, 
 a grant of King ^Ethilbald, the bounds of which are dated 743. 
 Before the signature comes the statement that this grant was made 
 over afterwards to the monastery of St Mary of Worcester. This 
 was evidently a note written on the charter at a later date, and copied 
 in course of time as though it had been part of the original. 
 
 Another example of subsequent modification is B. C. S. 233, which 
 is not strictly a charter, but a record of a grant by King Offa, who 
 is spoken of in the third person. Here it is said that ' King Offa 
 granted to the monks of the church of St Mary of Worcester 3 a certain 
 property. A Saxon record of the same grant follows, which says 
 nothing of monks or of St Mary, but records the gift as 'to the 
 minster at Worcester for the use of the brethren '. The Latin record 
 may have been written at a very much later date than the charter of 
 which presumably it was a summary. 
 
 Again, B. C. S. 577 and 578 are two forms of grants said to have 
 been made by King Alfred ; but it is only the second and inferior 
 form which speaks of 'the church of St Mary of Worcester*; the 
 other form has simply * the church of Worcester '. 
 
 Before we come to the consideration of the changes introduced at 
 Worcester by St Oswald, it is desirable that we should learn some- 
 thing of the saint's earlier days. Our source of information is the 
 anonymous Life of St Oswald, published by Raine in the Rolls Series 
 (Historians of York, i. 399 ff.) from the Cotton MS., Nero El. As 
 the biographer appeals to Archbishop ^Elfric as a witness to the 
 miracles performed at the tomb of King Edward the Martyr, he 
 would seem to have written before that archbishop's death in 1005 ; 
 and as he quotes the earliest Life of St Dunstan, which was dedicated 
 to the same archbishop, we may perhaps date his work between 1000 
 and 1005. Oswald had died in 992, and his biographer was a monk 
 of Ramsey, Oswald's greatest foundation. 2 
 
 1 See Appendix A. 2 On this anonymous Life see further in Appendix C. 
 
12 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 Our author begins with a long account of Archbishop Oda, 
 Oswalds uncle. He tells us that Oda's father was said to have been 
 f one of those Danes who came over in the army of the fleet with 
 Huba and Hinwar '. We learn from other sources that Ingwar and 
 Ubba were the chieftains whose three sisters had woven the mysterious 
 Raven banner which foretold victory or defeat ; they had landed in 
 England in 866, and were defeated after their invasion of Devonshire 
 in 878. That Oda was of Danish descent we may readily believe ; 
 the name of his kinsman Oskytel, the archbishop of York, bears this 
 out. The energy and adaptability of these fierce Norsemen is strik- 
 ingly illustrated by the fact that less than eighty years after the 
 Peace of Wedmore the two primatial sees were filled by men of 
 Danish blood. We may accept the character given to Oda by 
 Oswald's biographer, and regard him as a strong, brave, and prudent 
 man. He was known after his death as * Oda se goda % Oda the 
 Good, a title which St Dunstan himself is said to have bestowed 
 upon him. He must share with the saintly Bishop ^Elfheah of 
 Winchester the merit of preparing the way for the great monastic 
 revival. Oda, we are told by Oswald's biographer, had received the 
 monastic habit from the newly reformed monastery of Fleury ; and 
 as the English movement of reform under Dunstan and Ethelwold at 
 Glaston bury was the fruit of ^Elfheah's pious zeal, so the stimulus 
 which it afterwards derived from foreign sources was partly the 
 result of Oda's sending Oswald to be a monk at Fleury. 
 
 After having devoted the first section of his work to Archbishop 
 Oda, the writer comes at length to his proper subject. 1 In highly 
 rhetorical language, which serves to disguise his real lack of informa- 
 tion, he tells us of Oswald's pious boyhood, his education under his 
 uncle's supervision, and his rapid progress in sacred studies. Oda 
 endowed him with a considerable fortune, which he employed in the 
 purchase of a monastery at Winchester. He was of an exceedingly 
 attractive character, and his abilities and wealth surrounded him with 
 friends. After the fashion of the times, he arrayed himself in silk 
 and fared sumptuously every day, but his heart was not at ease. 
 * In those days ', says our author, ' there were no men of monastic 
 life in England, and no rules of that holy institute. There were 
 clerks of religion and dignity, who yet gave the treasures which they 
 eagerly acquired not to the honour of the church, but to their wives. 
 Among such dwelt this pious youth as Lot in Sodom.' 
 
 We must not exaggerate the import of such a statement as this. 
 The first part of it we know to be not strictly true; for Bishop 
 1 Historians of York., i. 410. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 13 
 
 ^Elfheah, who was himself a monk of devoted life, had ruled at 
 Winchester from about 934 to 951; and though it is possible that 
 Oswald did not go there till after his death, when he was succeeded 
 by ./Elfsige, of whom no good has been recorded, yet by that time 
 Dunstan had been building up Glastonbury for some ten years and 
 making it a true model of Benedictine life. But all this was half 
 a century before the date at which our author was writing ; and 
 a tradition had begun to grow up to the effect that there were no 
 monks in England, and that such monasteries as had not been wholly 
 destroyed by the Danes were served by careless clerks whose iniquities 
 called to heaven for vengeance. Such speedy forgetfulness of the 
 recent past is no isolated phenomenon : it is indeed characteristic of 
 great movements of reform. 
 
 We must pause to note here a misconception which arose a hundred 
 years later, and still confuses the story of Oswald's early days. 
 Eadmer, in re-,writing his Life, says that Oswald became a canon at 
 Winchester, and was soon made dean in spite of his youthfulness. 
 * Regular among irregulars, 5 he tells us, Oswald sought in vain to 
 mend the morals of his colleagues, and at last left them in despair. 1 
 We need not press the anachronism of the use of the word { canon ', 
 which does not seem to occur in any document of English origin, 
 either Latin or Saxon, before the year 1000. It is enough to point 
 out that the anonymous biographer, whose work he had before him, 
 says nothing about Oswald's association with the cathedral church at 
 Winchester, still less of his becoming its dean. What we are told is 
 that out of the wealth with which his uncle Oda supplied him 6 he 
 bought for himself a monastery situated at Winchester, paying no 
 inconsiderable price (sibi monasterium quod est in Wintonia positum 
 acquisivity donando digno pretio). 2 Such a proceeding is in harmony 
 with what we know of the times, though by Eadmer's day it had 
 happily become almost inconceivable. There were two great monas- 
 teries or minsters in Winchester the Old Minster, which was the 
 cathedral church, and the New Minster founded by King Alfred and 
 his son King Edward. We have no ground for supposing that what 
 Oswald purchased was the headship of either of these great founda- 
 tions, still less that it was merely a stall in the cathedral minster. 
 There were other churches in Winchester, such as the two which 
 chance to be mentioned in connexion with Bishop ^Elfheah in the 
 earliest Life of St Dunstan. 3 Probably it was one of these smaller 
 monasteries that was the scene of Oswald's earliest ministrations. 
 
 1 Historians of York, ii. 0. 2 Ibid. i. 410 f. 
 
 3 Memorials, pp. 14f. 
 
14 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 ' I would fain visit the parts beyond the sea/ he told the arch- 
 bishop, e and in the place that your love shall decree enter the service 
 of God and His saints/ In other words, he would resign his position 
 and his prospects, leave home and country, and become a monk in 
 a foreign land. Had he been of a Wessex stock he would not have 
 looked so far afield. Glastonbury under Abbot Dunstan would have 
 provided him with the life he sought. Perhaps it is an indication of 
 the silence with which Dunstan worked, that the fame of Glastonbury 
 as the home of a new spiritual movement was not yet such as to 
 attract this restless Danish youth. At any rate his uncle welcomed 
 his determination and sent him with gifts and commendation to 
 Fleury, where, under Abbot Wlfald, he would find the most perfect 
 observance of the Rule. 1 
 
 Oda in his old age implored that Oswald might be sent back to 
 him. It may be that he hoped that the young monk might bring his 
 experience to the English Church, and found a monastery on the 
 reformed lines at home. It is a curious fact that in the last year of 
 his life Oda obtained from King Edwy the grant of ( forty manses * 
 at Ely, which was then practically deserted and in the king's hand. 2 
 We shall find King Edgar offering Ely to Oswald at a later period 
 among other available sites for the settlement of his monks. We 
 may hazard the suggestion that Archbishop Oda had his nephew 
 Oswald in view when he obtained lands at Ely from King Edwy. 
 But Ely was to wait for another refounder, Bishop Ethelwold. And 
 though Oda^s request was granted by the abbot of Fleury, his 
 nephew's return came too late : before he reached England the arch- 
 bishop had passed away, on June 2, 958. 
 
 Oswald accordingly travelled north to his kinsman Oskytel_, the 
 archbishop of York, by whom he was commended to Dunstan, who 
 had now been recalled from exile and was administering the sees of 
 Worcester and London. Dunstan at once recognized his gifts and 
 his goodness ; and among his first acts on becoming archbishop of 
 Canterbury he consecrated Oswald, with King Edgar's permission, to 
 the see of Worcester, which he had just vacated. This was in the 
 year 961. His biographer now tells us how the new bishop, in 
 
 1 Wlfald succeeded Archembold, who had ruled Fleury after Abbot Odo's 
 death in 941. Wlfald sent monks to St Peter's at Chartres, at the request of 
 Ragenfred, who was bishop of Chartres from 941 to 960. This took place,, we 
 are told, some three years after Wlfald's accession (Ann. 0. S. B. iii. 503), 
 Abbo was dedicated as a boy at Fleury under Abbot Wlfald (ibid. 538). Wlfald 
 became bishop of Chartres in 962 (ibid. 560). Accordingly he may have been 
 abbot of Fleury from 943 to 962. 
 
 2 Crawford Charters, no. V (B. C. S. 999) : 9 May, 957. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 15 
 
 apostolic fashion, travelled round the villages of the diocese, preaching 
 and giving abundant alms. He endeared himself to every class, from 
 the dukes to the peasants : justice, gentleness, and hospitality were 
 the marks of his administration. 1 
 
 We then come to a chapter which specially concerns us : it is 
 headed, ' How Christ's prelate, chosen to government, afterwards 
 earnestly sought to gather together monks '. It opens with a rhetorical 
 outburst in praise of Fleury, whither St Benedict's bones had been 
 brought from Monte Cassino by the holy Agiulf. Then we are told 
 that there had followed Oswald to Fleury a Winchester youth named 
 Germanus, who after a long and severe probation became a monk, 
 and diligently learned the institutions of the Rule. Oswald now sent 
 for Germanus, and set him to instruct disciples in the monastic 
 manner of life. The fame of his pupils extended throughout the 
 province, and many faithful clerks came under him, including the 
 venerable priest Eadnoth, a man of noted wisdom. They soon passed 
 the sacred number of twelve, not counting the children whom they 
 trained. Oswald settled them at Westbury, where they offered an 
 example of true monasticism. He furnished them with the neces- 
 saries of life, so that their whole care should be for the divine service. 
 This state of things lasted for some four years. 2 
 
 Next we have a description of King Edgar's Easter court, at which 
 the whole question of monastic reform was considered. The king, 
 who hated the clerks (clericos perosos habuit) and loved the monks, 
 ordered more than forty monasteries to be established. His chief 
 adviser in this was Ethelwold, the bishop of Winchester. Oswald 
 asked the king for a place for his monks, and was offered the choice 
 of St Albans, Ely, and Benfleet ; after visiting these places he re- 
 turned home. 3 
 
 The narrative now reverts to the Easter court, to tell how a certain 
 knight died during its course, and how at the funeral Oswald met 
 with Ethelwin, son of that great Duke Athelstan who for his power 
 wa& called the f Half-king y , and who ended his days as a monk at 
 Glastonbury. Oswald asked Ethelwin if he could provide him a place 
 suitable for monks. Ethelwin at once offered him Ramsey, where 
 already there were three men desirous of the monastic life. Oswald 
 visited Ramsey, and approved its island solitude among the fens. 
 Returning home, he ordered the priest Eadnoth', the steward of the 
 monastery, to go to Ramsey and make preparations ; and on St John 
 
 1 Historians of York, i. 421,- 2 Ibid., p. 424. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 427. 
 
16 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 Baptist's Day (August 29) Oswald himself came and settled the 
 monks there. 1 
 
 A new chapter now begins by relating how during the next winter 
 masons were secured and materials prepared for building a stone 
 church in the spring. The church was cruciform, with a tower in 
 the middle and another at the west end. Meanwhile other monas- 
 teries were being founded; for the king pressed the matter on, and 
 ordered Dunstan to let Ethelwold of Winchester and Oswald of 
 Worcester understand that all sites of monasteries should be furnished 
 with monks or nuns. And this they quickly brought about, being 
 eager so to do. Oswald made two monasteries, one in his cathedral 
 city, the other at Winchelcombe. Of the latter he appointed 
 Germanus, the dean of Ramsey, to be head. Ethelnoth was set to 
 rule Ramsey ; and in the cathedral city the headship was given to 
 Wynsin, who had been trained at Ramsey (apud nostri coenobii 
 gymnasium), and took with him certain brethren from the Ramsey 
 choir. 2 
 
 Our author makes no further reference to Worcester, save at the 
 end, when he tells how the brethren at Worcester sent tidings to 
 Ramsey of Oswald's death, and how the saint was buried in his own 
 new church at Worcester. 3 In estimating the historical value of 
 what he says about Worcester, we must bear in mind that he is a 
 Ramsey monk, and his interests centre in his own house : Worcester 
 and Winchelcombe concern him only because Ramsey monks ruled 
 these foundations. But we learn from him that Oswald acted with 
 prudence and patience. He began with a model monastery on 
 a small scale at Westbury-on-Trym ; then, thanks to Duke Ethelwin's 
 unbounded generosity, Ramsey offered itself for a great foundation. 
 The introduction of monks at Worcester came later. Wynsin, or 
 Wynsige, who was put at their head, had received his training at 
 Ramsey. There is no suggestion that he had been a member of the 
 cathedral body at Worcester ; nor is any hint given of a difficulty 
 with clerks in the establishment of the monastery. It is important 
 to note these silences, for Eadmer's Life of Oswald greatly improves 
 on the barrenness of this early account. 
 
 We will now turn back to contemporary evidence, and see what 
 may be learned from Oswald's own charters. Between the years 962 
 and 969 we have some thirty grants of leases, mostly for three lives, 
 attested by members of the Worcester familia ; and of these grants 
 
 1 Historians of York, i. 431. 2 Ibid., p. 435. s Ibid., pp. 474 f. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 17 
 
 eleven belong to 969. After this we have a gap, and the next lists 
 of thefamilia come to us in 977. When we add to this that we have 
 a single charter attested by ihefamilia of Bishop Coenwald in 957, 
 it will be seen that we are in a position to watch the changes which 
 took place in the composition of the cathedral body during the 
 important period of twenty years, from the last days of Bishop Coen- 
 wald to the middle point of Oswald's episcopate. This is first-hand 
 evidence of the course of his reform. 
 
 Bishop Coenwald's charter of 957 (B. C. S. 893) is a semi-poetical 
 grant, made ' with consent of the brethren to Behstan presbyter of 
 the same monastery ' ; and we may note the phrase, ( by the key of 
 the apostolic authority of Peter', as a probable allusion to the dedi- 
 cation of the church. Thirteen names follow that of Coenwald in 
 the attestation. Behstan stands first and Wulfric second ; but only 
 one name is followed by a descriptive title, viz. c Cynethegn clericus '. 
 In Oswald's charters, on the other hand, we shall find that it is the 
 rule to place the title presbyter, deacon, or clerk after each name. 
 Taking B. C. S. 1088 and 1089 as the earliest of the charters issued 
 , by Oswald in 962, we can learn something by a comparison of the 
 names there given with the names of 957. The figures in brackets 
 after the names of the first list indicate their places in the second 
 list. 1 
 
 957. 962. 
 
 1. Behstan. 1. Wulfric pr. 
 
 2. Wulfric (1). 2. ^Ethelnoth pr. 
 
 3. ^Ethelstan.(13). 3. Alfred cl. 
 
 4. Wulfnoth. 4. Wulfhun cl. 
 
 5. Alfred (3). 5. Byrhstan cl, 
 
 6. Wulfr(ic) (17). 6. Cynsige cl. 
 
 7. Eadstan. 7. Wulfgar cl. 
 
 8. Oswulf. 8. Wynstan cl. 
 
 9. JElfric (15). 9. Wulfheah cl. 
 
 10. Wulfhun (4). 10. Cynstan cl. 
 
 11. Cynsige (6). 11. Eadwine cl. 
 
 12. Cynethegn cler' (14). 12. JElfstan cl. 
 
 13. ^Elfstan (12). 13. ^Ethelstan cl. 
 
 14. Cynethegn cl. 
 
 15. ^Elfric di. 
 
 16. Eadgarcl. 
 
 17. Wulfric cl. 
 
 1 The order of names in B. C. S. 1088 has been deranged by a scribe, who 
 read downwards instead of across. 
 
 B 
 
18 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 The changes here shown are not more than might be expected in 
 the course of five years. Four of the first list are missing from the 
 second ; but of these Wulfnoth reappears in 966 and afterwards ; 
 and Behstan, the senior in 957, may have died, or may have gone to 
 live on the estate then granted to him. Eight names are new in 
 962 ; but we cannot be sure that some of these were not merely 
 absentees on the former occasion. 
 
 Judging from the titles appended in 962, it seems that the only 
 priests in 957 were Behstan, who is styled ( presbyter ' in the body 
 of the grant made to him, and Wulfric, who succeeds Behstan as the 
 senior. Nor were matters any better in 962 ; for Wulfric and 
 ^Ethelnoth are the only priests, and there is but one deacon, ^Elfric. 
 This is a startling revelation. It helps us to understand the general 
 complaint that the monasteries or minsters were in the hands of 
 clerks and the services grossly neglected. In contrast with this we 
 may remember that nine presbyters, four deacons, and five other 
 persons had attested Bishop Denebert's charter of c. 798. 
 
 Although we have lists of ihefamilia in charters of 963, 966, 967, 
 and 969, it will suffice for our present purpose to examine two lists 
 which belong to the year 977 ; and it is important to bear in mind 
 that there has been an interval of seven years (970-6), during which 
 there are no lists for comparison. The first year of their appearance 
 is noted before the names of those who have attested earlier charters. 
 
 977. 1 977. 2 
 
 Wynsige pr. Wynsige mo. 
 
 957 Wulfric pr. Wulfheh mo. 
 
 962 Wulfheah pr. ^Ethelstan mo. 
 
 957 ^Ethelstan pr. ^Ethelsige mo. 
 
 969 ^Elfsige pr. JSthelstan mo. 
 
 962 Eadgar pr. Wulfweard mo. 
 
 962 Wistan pr. Eadwine cl. 
 
 966 Eadweard pr. Godingc cl. 
 
 966 ^Elfgar di. ^Elfstan cl. 
 
 Godingc di. ^Elfsige mo. 
 
 Leofstan di. Leofwine mo. 
 
 ^Ethelsige di. yElfgar mo. 
 
 Wulfweard di. ^Ethelric mo. 
 
 957 Cynethegn cl. Brihstan cl. 
 
 957 Wulfhun cl. Eadweard cl. 
 
 1 Cf. K. C. D. 596, 612, 613., 614. 2 K. C. D. 615. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 19 
 
 977. 1 977. 2 
 
 962 Wulfgar cl. ^Ethelwold cl. 
 
 962 Brihstan cl. ^Elfstan cl. 
 
 966 Leofwine cl. Wulfnoth cl. 
 
 962 Cynestan cl. Wulfric cl. 
 
 966 Wynstan cl. Cynetheng cl. 
 
 962 Eadwine cl. Wulfhun cl. 
 
 957 ^Elfstan cl. Eadgar pr. 
 
 ^Elfnoth cl. Wulfgar cl. 
 
 ^Ethelwold cl. Leofstan di. 
 
 957 Wulfnoth cl. Tuna cl. 
 
 ^Ethelric cl. Cynstan cl. 
 
 Wunstan cl. 
 
 Looking at the former of the lists for 977, we may note that three 
 or four members of the body have passed away since 969, and on the 
 other hand there are eight new names. Wynsige, who has come from 
 Ramsey, is now at the head, and among the other new names some 
 may be of those whom he brought with him from the Ramsey choir. 
 Wulfric, who was at the head, now takes the second place. There 
 are six survivors of the thirteen who attested Bishop Coenwald's 
 charter of 957 ; twelve survivors of the seventeen who signed in 962. 
 Thus it is plain that there has been no violent breach of continuity. 
 On the other hand, we observe the effect of Oswald's reforming 
 influence in the change from the two priests and one deacon of 962 
 to eight priests and five deacons in 977. 
 
 There are six charters of 977 which present this same type of 
 attestation (K. C. D. 596, 612, 613, 614, 616, 617) : but there is one 
 of the same year (K. C. D. 615) which is unique, and, if we may 
 trust it, most instructive. 3 Of its 27 names 10 have the title mona- 
 chus affixed to them. In the next year and henceforward the usual 
 type of attestation is found again, and Wulfric and Wistan, the two 
 presbyters missing from the exceptional list, reappear in their usual 
 places. We might perhaps suppose that they had abstained from 
 signing as a protest against this unexampled method of attestation. 
 A few of the later charters show the title monachus attached to an 
 individual name here and there : but never again is the whole body 
 divided into those who were monks and those who were not. If we 
 care to imagine that hard words passed on this occasion, it will only 
 throw into relief the fact that apart from this there is no evidence 
 
 1 Cf. K. C. D. 596, (512, 613, 614. 2 K. C. D. 615. 
 
 3 See the second of the lists given above. 
 B 2 
 
20 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 at all of any kind of friction in the course of Oswald's great 
 reform. It is right, however, to point out that the designation 
 monachus is by no means the only peculiarity which marks the 
 attestations of K. C. D. 615. We note also (1) the strangeness of 
 the order by which three clerici are interposed between the first six 
 and the last four of the monachi : (2) the late position of Eadgar, the 
 only witness described as presbiter: (3) the absence of Wulfric 
 presbiter, who headed the list before Wynsige arrived and stands 
 second in the other charters of this year : (4) the description of 
 Eadweard as clericus, though in the other charters of this year he is 
 styled presbiter. In view of all this we can hardly think that the 
 attestations of this charter have come down to us in their original 
 form ; and it will be more prudent to abstain from basing any 
 conclusions upon it. 
 
 In the following years, from 978 to Oswald's death in 992, there 
 is little change. Wulfric, who apparently does not become a monk, 
 disappears after 983. Wynsige signs for the last time in 986 ; and 
 ^Ethelstan, the next name on the list, hereafter takes the first place. 
 
 The exact date at which Wynsige and the monks came from 
 Ramsey cannot be fixed. All that we can say with certainty is that 
 they were at Worcester in 977. Two charters which bear the dates 
 969 and 974 (B. C. S. 1243 and 1298) give no lists of signatures, 
 but contain Saxon notes to the effect that they were witnessed by 
 ( Wynsige monk (or 'dean') and all the monks at Worcester'. 
 It is obvious that this cannot represent the original form of these 
 charters, and the evidence cannot be accepted without hesitation. 
 The date 969 is in any case inconsistent with the fact that Wynsige 
 had been trained for some time at Ramsey, which itself was not 
 founded until about that year, if so early. 1 
 
 Lastly, a Worcester tradition of the end of the eleventh century 
 throws some light on the events which we have been considering, 
 and as it has been seriously misinterpreted it will be well to notice 
 it here. The evidence comes from the Acts of a Synod held by 
 Bishop Wulstan at Worcester in 1092, printed by Hearne (pp. 527 ff.) 
 from Vitellius C. 9 (the extracts made by Patrick Young) ; and also 
 by Wharton (Anglia Sacra, i. 542) from a contemporary document in 
 the archives of the cathedral church. A dispute had arisen between 
 the presbyters of St Helen's and St Alban's as to the rights of their 
 respective churches. 
 
 1 See Appendix B. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 21 
 
 The bishop took the testimony of certain old men, well informed 
 as to the ancient customs of the parish churches, and the testimony 
 also of the monks of the cathedral church. It was affirmed that 
 originally there was no parish in Worcester save that of the mother 
 church. In the time of Bosel, the first bishop (680-691), St Helen's 
 was a vicarage of the mother' church. This arrangement was 
 preserved throughout the times of all the bishops by the clerks 
 who served in this see,, until the days of Archbishop Oswald, who, 
 by the aid of King Edgar and the authority of Archbishop Dunstan, 
 changed the society of this church from the irregular life of clerks 
 to the regular life and the habit of monks, A.D. 969. In St Oswald's 
 time Wynsius the presbyter of St Helen's was vicar there of the 
 mother church. He, with the others who served this church in 
 the habit of clerks, laid aside the world and took the habit of monastic 
 religion; and he gave up the keys of St Helen's church with its 
 lands and possessions to the common use of the monks. In the 
 third year of the conversion of Wynsius the presbyter, Oswald, with 
 the king's assent, made him prior of the monks of this church. 
 
 We need not carry the story farther. The date 969 was doubt- 
 less gathered from the charter which claims to be of that year 
 (B. C. S. 1243) and is said in the Saxon note to have been witnessed 
 ( by Wynsige monk and all the monks of Worcester '. We note in 
 passing that in the account here given there is no suggestion that 
 there had ever been a community of monks at Worcester before 
 St. Oswald's time. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 A. WORCESTER CHARTERS OF ST MARY'S BEFORE 
 ST OSWALD'S TIME 
 
 It is a perilous task for one who has not been trained in the 
 modern school of Anglo-Saxon diplomatics to undertake such an 
 examination as here follows. My apology must be that no one, so 
 far as I am aware, has faced the problem of Oswald's reform from 
 the point of view of the authenticity of the charter evidence in regard 
 to what existed at Worcester before his time. I shall gladly welcome 
 correction in detail ; but I have an impression that a wider knowledge 
 will only strengthen the case which I have endeavoured to put. It is 
 only since this Note was written that I have seen the instructive 
 article by Mr. W. H. Stevenson on the so-called 'Trinoda neces- 
 sitas ' in the English Historical Review for October 1914, and also 
 Mr. F. M. Stenton's article in the same Review for October 1918 
 on ( The Supremacy of the Mercian Kings '. I have learnt much 
 from both of these articles, and have made one or two references to 
 them in my foot-notes. 
 
 I 
 
 B. C. S. 165. ^thilbald to Osred. Cold-Aston and Netgrove, 
 co. Gloucester. 716 x 743. 
 
 This charter is accepted by Mr. W. H. Stevenson. 1 
 
 It is to be noted, however, that the mention of St Mary's only 
 comes in a sentence inserted before the signatures : Haec autem testa- 
 menti traditio perpetualiter postea tradita est sanctae Mariae Uueo- 
 gernensis monasterii pro ipsius regis salute. This obviously is no 
 part of the original charter, and may have been added at quite 
 a late date. 
 
 The bounds are dated 743, at the end in Anglo-Saxon. The 
 statement that Ethilbald booked the land Utele bisceope into sancte 
 Marian is unintelligible as it stands. There may be some con- 
 fusion with Utel, bishop of Hereford (c. 798), and St Mary of 
 Hereford. 
 
 1 Mr. Stevenson's judgements on some of the early Worcester charters are 
 recorded by Mr. C. H. Turner in his Early Worcester MSS., pp. xxxiiff. 
 
ST OSWALD AND THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER, 23 
 
 II 
 
 B. C. S. 204. Uhtred regulus. Stoke. 770. 
 
 This charter is rejected as spurious by Stevenson. It follows the 
 original Worcester charter of Uhtred (B. C. S. 203) almost verbatim 
 with the necessary changes. But it corrects the Latin : adding et 
 after itaque ; writing terreni for terrigenis ; and putting an accusa- 
 tive after praeter, instead of an ablative; changing cessat into cesset, 
 and ante ea into antea. Moreover in the attestation it gives to 
 Bishop Mildred the phrase pia del dispensatione, which is given in 
 the genuine charter to Uhtred, and, on the contrary, gives to Uhtred 
 Christi gratia concedente, which is there given to Bishop Mildred. 
 Its boundaries are given at great length, in contrast to the seven 
 words of those of the genuine charter. 
 
 In Domesday Book the church holds Stoke with two berewicks, 
 Easton and Bedindon, ten hides in all (= X tributariorum of the 
 charter). Now in the genuine grant (B. C. S. 203) Uhtred gives 
 land V tributariorum at Easton to his minister Ethelmund, with 
 reversion after two heirs to the church of Worcester. The forged 
 grant was an attempt to make out of the wording of this a gift of 
 Stoke (including Easton), in the very same yea.r,fratribus deo servien- 
 tibus in monasterio Uuigornensi quod constructum est in honors 
 sanctissimae virginis et matris domini nostri Ihesu Christi Mariae. 
 
 It may further be noted that this forged Stoke charter is the 
 second of a group of 13 charters (beginning with Cropthorne, 
 on f. 142 of the MS. [Hearne, p. 319]), which have been misplaced 
 in binding. If we go on to f. 173 [Hearne, p. 391], we find Incipit 
 praefatio huius libelli, and after this preface Incipiunt capituli istius 
 codicelli. 1. De Croppathorne. 2. De Stoke, &c. The Cropthorne 
 charter of King Offa is recognized as a forgery by Stevenson and 
 others. It would be interesting to know how many of these thirteen 
 are in better case. 
 
 Ill 
 
 B. C. S. 205. Uhtred subregulus. Shipston. n.d. 
 
 This charter also is marked by Stevenson as spurious. But it is 
 of a very different character. The forger is a stylist, though weak 
 in grammar, as is shown by his opening words : Appropinquantem 
 mundi terminum . . . declaratur. He has apparently used the 
 genuine charter (B. C. S. 203) : but he makes many changes. Thus 
 Uhtred is subregulus instead of regulus, and in the attestation Offa 
 is made to say: met duds postulatione. He exaggerates in the 
 phrase ex immensis donalionibus, and speaks not only of God as 
 
24 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 the giver, but also of domini mei piissimi regis Merciorum. For 
 in usus aecclesiasticae libertatis he says in usus ecclesiasticae necessi- 
 tudinis ; and for in mensam eorum he says ad propriam mensurae 
 participationem mensae illorum. In the attestation we find vexillum 
 sacratissimae crucis Christi and signum mirabile beatae crucis, 
 elaborate phrases which by themselves suffice to raise grave suspicion 
 at this period. 
 
 The grant is of land n aru > mansionum iugera continentem (a strange 
 phrase) quae iacet iuxta fluvium qui dicitur Stur, ad vadum nomine 
 Scepesuuasce. 
 
 In Domesday Book the church holds two hides at Scepwestun. 
 
 This charter is no. 3 in the codicellus referred to above. 
 
 The grant is made ad aecclesiam beatae semper virginis dei gene- 
 tricis Mariae quae sita est in Uuegerna civitate, ubi corpora patrum 
 meorum digne condiuntur. Compare B. C. S. 183, the doubtful charter 
 of his brother Eanberht, which speaks of St Peter's as the church 
 ubi corpora parentum nostrorum quiescunt. (That is a grant of 
 Tredingctun . . . iuxta fluvium qui dicitur Stuur.) 
 
 IV 
 B. C. S. 223. Offa to Aldred. Sedgebarrow : Aldred to St Mary's. 
 
 778 (for 777). 
 
 This charter Mr. Stevenson classifies among those in which he sees 
 6 some definite reason for believing the document to be genuine '. It 
 still existed at Worcester when Hickes was dean : see his Thesaurus 
 I. 170f., where a transcript of it is given. It is primarily a charter 
 of King Offa, granting Sedgebarrow to his subregulus Aldred. After 
 the signatures is added a grant by Aldred regulus to St Mary's. We 
 need not question Mr. Stevenson's acceptance of King Offa's charter. 
 We are only concerned with Aldred's postscript, as to which he has 
 expressed no separate judgement. 
 
 1. This postscript begins : Nunc ergo ego Aldredus domino dis- 
 pensante Huicciorum regulus. But Aldred regularly styles himself 
 subregulus, as. indeed Offa calls him in this very charter. The only 
 other place in which he describes himself as regulus is in B. C. S. 232, 
 where we find Ego Aldredus meam munificentiam corroborans, &c. But 
 this is a grant by Uhtred, not by Aldred ; and Aldredus is a mere 
 scribal error for Uhtredus in the attestation. 
 
 2. At the end we read : et hoc cum subscriptione principum meorum 
 muniendo munio. But the three witnesses are praefecti, not principes ; 
 and the duplication muniendo munio seems to have no parallel in such 
 a connexion in charters of the period. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 25 
 
 3. The attestation begins thus : >J Ego Aldredus regulus Huic- 
 ciorum propriam meam donationem signo crucis notavi. The phrase 
 signo crucis notavi does not appear to occur again in any charter. 
 In the very doubtful charter of his brother Eanberht (B. C. S. 183) 
 we have signum salutiferae crucis praenotavi. In the Act of the 
 council of Clovesho in 803 (B. C. S. 312) we find signum notavi: but 
 only in copies, not in the original document. In the tenth century 
 we have partial parallels: as notavi alone in two charters of King 
 Athelstan to Exeter (B. C. S. 724, 726, both questionable) ; regno (for 
 signo) salubri adnotavi, King Edred (B. C. S. 880) ; signo salutifero 
 . . . prenotaviy King Edgar (B. C. S. 1112); sigillum sancte crucis 
 annotavi, King Ethelred (K. C. D. 684) ; and, what is most notable, 
 Oswald, in attesting King Ethelred's charters, though not in his own, 
 constantly uses the phrase crucis taumate adnotavi (K. C. D. 639, 
 647, 648, 650, 652, 655, 657, 658, 659, 663, 673). Lastly, in a 
 questionable charter of Edward the Confessor, A.D. 1060, we have 
 in Bishop Wulstan^s attestation vexillo sanctae crucis praenotavi 
 (K. C. D. 809). Our parallels, therefore, so far as they are trust- 
 worthy, come exclusively from the tenth century. 
 
 4. There follow the names of three praefecti, introduced in each 
 case by signum manus, as are the later names of Offals charter. In 
 Uhtred's charter (B. C. S. 232), already referred to, these three prae- 
 fecti follow TLadbaldprinceps, who is the last witness of Offa's charter 
 here. If this postscript is not genuine, we may suppose that they 
 originally stood at the end of Offa's charter, and have been treated as 
 the principes of Aldred by the forger (though still styled praefecti). 
 
 5. Finally, we have the dating of the charter after these last 
 witnesses, whereas we should have expected it before the witnesses of 
 Offals charter. The year is not in agreement with the indiction and 
 the other notes of time, being a year too late. Both Kemble and 
 Birch, working from two chartularies, give it as DCCLXXVIII; 
 Hickes, however, who transcribed the Worcester charter, gives 
 DCCLXXIIIII (sic). The year pointed to by the indiction is A. D. 777. 
 
 Accordingly, it seems reasonable to conclude that a genuine charter 
 of King Offa was copied or imitated by a forger, who inserted a grant 
 by Aldred of the land in question to the church of St Mary at 
 Worcester ; making the three praefecti who closed Offa's attestation 
 into the principes of Aldred's grant, and placing the date at the end 
 of the whole piece. 
 
26 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 B. C. S. 226. Offa to St Mary's. Ductun & Esig. n.d. 
 
 On this charter Mr. Stevenson expresses no opinion. 1 
 
 It is verbally the same as B. C. S. 210,, OfiVs grant of lands to 
 Ridda with reversion to the monastery of Breodun, only the necessary 
 variations being made. 
 
 For ad monasterium vocabulo at Breodune we have ad monasterium 
 sanctae Mariae vocabulo peogerna Ceastre. 
 
 The bounds in B.C.S. 210 are given briefly and in Latin. Here, 
 however, they are much fuller and in Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 The witnesses are with one exception the same in both documents. 
 
 There is thus little to help us to distinguish between these two 
 charters as regards the question of genuineness. But it is important 
 to observe that the church of Worcester showed another charter for 
 the five hides at Esig in Gloucestershire, viz. B. C. S. 487, a grant of 
 King Burgred in the next century, A. D. 855. This is somewhat 
 inconsistent with the grant of King Offa c. A.D. 775. 
 
 We cannot, therefore, regard this charter (B. C. S. 226) as affording 
 any solid evidence of the existence of St Mary's church in the eighth 
 century. It is almost certainly a forgery based on B. C. S. 210. 
 
 VI 
 B.C.S. 231. Offa and Aldred to St Mary's. Geate. n.d. 
 
 This is a duplicate, mutatis mutandis, of B. C. S. 246, a grant to 
 the monastery of Clive, co. Gloucester, which is accepted by Mr. 
 Stevenson ; but he regards the present charter as doubtful. 2 
 
 In the inserted passage, qua eandem aecclesiam ^Ethilbaldus rex avo 
 meo Eanulfo conscripsit, we seem to have a confusion witli the church 
 of Breodun, which in B. C. S. 234 and 236 is ascribed to this Eanulf, 
 grandfather of Offa, as its founder. The passage, w r hich is unintel- 
 ligible as it stands, is nearly identical with a passage in B. C. S. 273, 
 where also it is followed by the clause tamdiu fides Christiana apud 
 Anglos in Brittania maneat. This clause is also found in B. C. S. 236 
 (just mentioned) ; but otherwise not in any charter of the eighth 
 century. 
 
 The three charters B. C. S. 231, 236, 273, are thus closely connected; 
 and the least trustworthy of the three seems to be B. C. S. 231. 
 
 This charter is one of those transcribed in Smith's Beds ; but it is 
 
 1 Mr. F. M. Stenton regards it as 'suspicious' (E. H. K. xxxiii. 448 f). 
 
 2 ' Probably spurious,' Stenton, /. c., p. 445. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 27 
 
 said to have been of later date than King Offa's time : see Hearne, 
 Heming, p. 592. It is rejected by Kemble, and marked as doubtful 
 by Stevenson. 
 
 VII 
 
 B. C. S. 233. Offa to the monks of St Mary's. Broadwas. n.d. 
 
 This is marked as spurious by Stevenson. 
 
 It is granted monachis sanctae Mariae Guigornensis cecclesiae, and 
 is followed by a Saxon form, from which perhaps it was derived ; but 
 in this form the grant is made e to the minster at Worcester for 
 the use of the brethren ', no mention being made of monks or of 
 St Mary's. 
 
 VIII 
 
 B. C. S. 240. Offa to St Mary's. Iccomb, in exchange for 
 Sapey. 781. 
 
 On this Mr. Stevenson has pronounced no judgement. 1 It is 
 rejected by Kemble. Its witnesses are the same as those of B. C. S. 
 239, Offa's grant of lands to St Peter's at Worcester; and its wording 
 at the close is similar. It also has points in common with B. C. S. 236, 
 and with the spurious charter B. C. S. 235. None of these charters 
 are of good repute. 
 
 The mention of fares illos quos Saxonice dicimus uuergeldtheouas 
 is suspicious. Other notices relating to Iccomb and to Sapey seem 
 hard to reconcile with the exchange spoken of in this charter. Of 
 Sapey we learn (Hearne, Heming, p. 255) that Beorhtheah, the bishop 
 from 1033 onwards, granted it to his brother-in-law, and thus it 
 became alienated, ultimately being granted to St Evroul. Iccomb, 
 on the other hand, is said (ibid., p. 406) to have been given to the 
 church by Earl ^Elfgar, when Wulstan was prior : cf. p. 370, where it 
 is said to have been given in Harold's time. 
 
 It is clear, therefore, that nothing can be built on the evidence of 
 this charter. 
 
 This completes our review of the evidence for the existence of 
 St Mary's in the eighth century. We need have no hesitation in 
 dismissing it as quite worthless. After this point we have not the 
 help of Mr. Stevenson's judgements. 
 
 1 In E. H. R. xxix. 697, however, he regards it as having been falsified : and 
 Mr. Stenton, ibid, xxxiii. 444, speaks of it as ' either spurious or remodelled '. 
 
28 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 IX 
 
 B.C.S. 433. Berhtuulf to Heaberht, bishop of Worcester, 
 and the monks of St Mary's. Mitton : one manse. Christmas 
 Day, 841. 
 
 This charter seems so colourless and even, that it is difficult at 
 first sight to judge of its genuineness. The only striking feature 
 is the invocation of the Nine Orders of Angels : but this offers us 
 the needed clue. For not only does this recur in the next charter 
 (B. C. S. 434), but we find on comparison that the whole of the 
 wording of the former charter is contained in the latter, which is 
 three times its length, with the exception of the description of the 
 property and of the grantees. B. C. S. 434 is a grant of privileges 
 by the same king to the monastery of Breodun : it is fantastic in 
 style and full of grammatical blunders, therein corresponding with 
 other charters of Berhtuulf (B. C. S. 4.28, 450, 453, 454). There can 
 be no doubt that our charter is abbreviated from this. 
 
 The date, given in the same words, has been placed at the begin- 
 ning, instead of coming before the signatures ; and there is no 
 prooemium. This in itself is suspicious. The witnesses differ only 
 in order and spelling, save that there are added three duces and four 
 ministri. The title minister is unusual, if not unknown, in genuine 
 Mercian charters, though it was common in Wessex and Kent. 
 Exceptions are B. C. S. 137, 245, 296, 349, 351, 514 ; but the second 
 and third of these are quite untrustworthy, and we cannot firmly 
 rely on any of the rest. 
 
 The one clause which is not taken from B. C. S. 434 is : Heaberhto 
 episcopo quandam ruris particulam, mansam scilicet unam, in villa 
 quam ruricolae Myttun appellant, monachis videlicet sanctae Mariae 
 pigornensis aecclesiae perfruendum et possidendum iugiter usque in 
 aevum. The description of the land has no parallel in other 
 charters of Berhtuulf. The monks of St Mary's may once more be 
 dismissed as an anachronism. 
 
 We learn from the Domesday Survey that one hide at Mitton 
 went with the Manor of Breordun : it had been alienated, and was 
 recovered by Archbishop Wulstan after the Conquest. 
 
 X 
 
 B. C. S. 462. Beorhtuulf. Grimley to St Mary's. 851. 
 
 This charter is soon disposed of. The introduction of Dathan 
 and Abiron into the guarding clause seems to occur in no charters 
 except B.C.S. 1135, the forged charter of Edgar to Worcester,, 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 29 
 
 and B. C. S. 1178, the charter of Edgar to Croyland as given by 
 'Ingulf*. 
 
 The attestation is made up of the names of the king and Bishop 
 Alhun, followed by a list taken from B. C. S. 357, Coenuulf's charter 
 of 816 : the two other bishops thus introduced had been dead about 
 thirty years. 
 
 XI 
 
 B. C. S. 541. Ceoluulf to the monks of St Mary's. Overburg. 
 875. 
 
 The opening and closing portions of this charter are found with 
 slight variation in B. C. S. 540. There we read : rogatus aperfrido 
 antestite Huicciorum etfamilia in Uueogernacestre, istam libertatem 
 . . . donavi. Here^ however, we have the clumsy combination : 
 rogatus a Werfrido episcopo Wiciorum etfamilia in Wigornacestre, 
 concessi monachis deo famulantibus in monasterio Wigornensi quod 
 constructum est in honor e sanctae et perpetuae matris et virginis 
 Mariae. 
 
 The witnesses of B. C. S. 540 reappear in B.C.S. 541,, with the 
 exception of Deorlaf episcopus : but a number of other names are 
 added in the latter charter. Three of these raise suspicion : Alhferht 
 dux, Kyred, Wulsige; for they seem really to represent Ealfrith, 
 bishop of Winchester, Ceorred or Ceolred, bishop of Leicester, and 
 Wulfsige, another bishop, all of whom attest charters of this period. 
 
 This charter is one of those which come from the codicellus 
 already spoken of : and it is plain that no weight can be attached 
 to its evidence, either for monks or for St Mary's church at this 
 period. 
 
 XII 
 
 B. C. S. 578 is a Canterbury memorandum to the effect that King 
 Alfred gave certain lands at Rotherhithe to Archbishop Plegmund 
 and Bishop Werfrith. The words which concern us are : unum 
 archiepiscopo Doroberniae Plegemundo et successoribus eius ad opus 
 ecclesie Christi et monachorum : alterum vero Werefrido ad eccle- 
 siam sanctae Mariae Wigoracensem. But B. C. S. 577 gives a better 
 form of the same memorandum, in which we read unum archiepiscopo 
 Plegmundo ad ecclesiam Christi, alteram Uuerfrido ad ecclesiam 
 Uuigornacensem. 
 
 We need not discuss the authenticity of the grant. We may note, 
 however, how easily the mention of St Mary's may be inserted by 
 a copyist. 
 
30 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 XIII 
 
 B. C. S. 616. Bishop Werfrith to Abbot Cynelm. 10 manses 
 at Bengeworth. 907. 
 
 Here we have the clause : et sciat quicunque hanc terrain teneat 
 cotidie elemoslnam faciendam pro anima Burhredi regis et Alhuni 
 episcopi, qui hanc terram donaverunt deo et sancte Mariae ad 
 ecclesiam in Uueogernacestre. The clause is unlikely in itself to be 
 genuine ; and in B. C. S. 235 the 10 manses at Bengeworth are said 
 to have been given by King Offa in 780. It is followed by the state- 
 ment that the grant is made in 907 with leave of King Alfred, who, 
 however, had been dead seven or eight years ; and the signatures are 
 not of Bishop Werfrith's time, but correspond with those of charters 
 of 849-55 (B. C. S. 455, 490). 
 
 Older materials may perhaps have been worked up in this charter : 
 but as it stands it is a particularly clumsy forgery. 
 
 We conclude that the ninth century offers us no more tangible 
 evidence than the eighth century of a church of St Mary or of 
 a community of monks at Worcester. 
 
 XIV, XV 
 
 B. C. S. 665. Athelstan to St Mary's. Aust on Severn. 929. 
 B. C. S. 666. Athelstan to St Mary's. Eaton on Cherwell. 929. 
 
 These two charters must be considered together, on account of the 
 similarity in their date and attestation : 
 
 Scripta est haec cartula anno dominicae incarnationis nccccxxvmi, ac sexto 
 regno ^Ejjelstani regis, Christo Ihesu gubernante, renovando in melius cum 
 senatorum signaculo confirmavit. 
 
 J< JEJielstan rex sceptris fretus regalibus hanc cartam signavit cum manibus. 
 
 |< pulfhelm archiepiscopus cum ceteris praesulibus. 
 
 >|< JElpino . peodredo . Fry^estano . Sigelielmo . pynsigio . Beornheho . 
 
 Eadgaro . ^Ifhaeho . Odailo . consignavit. 
 J OsferS comes cum ducibus ac ceteris optimatibus . .ZElfpaldo (and 16 others) 
 
 consignavit. 
 
 Rodepard quoque archipraesul cum Eboracensis suffraganeis . -ZEscber'h'to . 
 pigredo . Earnulfo . Columbano . consignavit. 
 
 So in B. C. S. 665 : the only difference in B. C. S. 666 is that the 
 attestation is broken off after the word optimatibus. 
 
 We begin by noting the date. The evidence of Athelstan's charters 
 points on the whole to the commencement of his reign on Dec. 25, 
 924. His sixth year, therefore, began Dec. 25, 929. If these charters 
 are genuine, they were issued in the last week of 929. If they are 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 31 
 
 not genuine, we may suppose that the compiler simply reckoned from 
 the statement of the Worcester copy of the A.-S. Chronicle, which 
 placed Athelstan's accession in 924, though the Winchester copy in 
 its corrected form gave 9.25. 
 
 The phrase renovando in melius is intelligible in B.C. S. 665, which 
 is intended as a confirmation ut firmior esset stabilitas ; but it is 
 meaningless in B. C. S. 666. 
 
 Confirmavit. Each of these charters appears again in the latter 
 part of the MS. of Heming's Register, and in a modified form. We 
 note that in each case confirmavit is altered into confirmata. The 
 references in Hearne's edition are pp. Ill and 434 for B. C. S. 665 ; 
 pp. 67 and 379 for B. C. S. 666. We have already observed that this 
 Register is a composite document. 
 
 Sceptris fretus regalibus. It is hardly conceivable that a genuine 
 charter of King Athelstan should contain this phrase in the attesta- 
 tion. In charters of King Edgar, however, we find regali fretus 
 dignitate, not indeed in the attestation, but in the body of the 
 document (B. C. S. 1056, 1151). 
 
 Signavit cum manibus. This again is a phrase which raises sus- 
 picion. Lastly, the addition of Archbishop Rodeward and the 
 6 suffragans y of York is an astonishing feature. B. C. S. 666 does 
 not go on to this point, but in the later forms of both charters the 
 reviser has put Rodwald into his normal position. Of these e suffragans 9 
 /Escberht attests charters from 930 to 934, and Wired (of Chester- 
 le-Street) generally attests with him. But Earnulf and Columbanus 
 are otherwise unknown. The grouping of names in the attestation 
 has no parallel in the Worcester documents. It may be for this reason 
 that the reviser attempts to normalize the attestation in the later 
 forms. We may suppose that the compiler had based his forgeries 
 on some charter in the Register of another house, such as that of 
 Burton-on-Trent, where abbreviations of this kind were in use. 
 
 After this preliminary survey we need not spend much time on the 
 further details of each charter : but some points deserve notice. 
 
 In B. C. S. 665 the prooemium Variante iam temporum statu, &c., is 
 closely parallel in sense, though not in wording, to that of B. C. S. 
 1052 (attributed to King Edgar) : Vacillante practicae vitae statu, &c. 
 This prooemium also introduces surget gens contra gentem, a text 
 which is found in several charters of the end of the tenth century 
 (B.C.S. 1085, 1095, 1099, 1113, 1115, 1125, 1216). 
 
 The interesting phrase totius Albionis, though frequent at a later 
 period, cannot be found in any charter of Athelstan which is certainly 
 genuine. 
 
32 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 Benevolentibus autem et augentibus and tradentur in manus gladii 
 do not seem to occur in the guarding clauses of any other charters. 
 
 When we turn to B. C. S. 666, we are able to trace its language in 
 other charters of the Worcester collection. The prooemium, indeed, 
 is quite extraordinary, and to its odd phrases there seem to be no 
 parallels. We may note, however, that evangelicum paradigma has 
 occurred in the prooemium of B. C. S. 665. 
 
 Ut aliquid ex percepti mundanis regni distributions . . . quamvis 
 minus dignum ad ecclesiasticae liberalitatis servitium expenderim. 
 This is phraseology of King OnVs time ; the very mistakes, mundanis 
 for mundani, and liberalitatis for libertatis, are but repetitions : see 
 B.C.S. 202-5, 210, 226, 231, 239, 246, 251: several of these 
 charters are forgeries, but based on genuine models. 
 
 But the charter chiefly drawn upon is King Burhred's grant of the 
 same property to Bishop Alhun (B. C. S. 509). From this comes the 
 ungrammatical phrase Eatun iuxtaflumine Cearpellan. And the whole 
 of the guarding clause. Pax servantibus, &c., is taken from this charter. 
 Accordingly, we can have no hesitation in dismissing both these 
 charters (B. C. S. 665, 666) as spurious. 
 
 XVI 
 
 B. C. S. 700. Athelstan to Worcester monastery. Clifton-upon- 
 Teme. 930. 
 
 This is marked by Kemble as spurious, and no one will question 
 his decision. 
 
 The reference to Anlaf tropheum ex Anolafo rege Norannorum, 
 qui me vita et regno privare disponit is an anachronism : for Anlaf a 
 legendary attempt on Athelstan's life on the night before Brunanburh 
 was still seven years in the future. Historical references of this kind 
 are almost invariably signs of forgery. 
 
 The date is given as ' 930 in the sixth year of Athelstan's reign * ; 
 but the indiction and epact belong to 934 : see on this point the next 
 charter. 
 
 XVII 
 
 B.C.S. 701. Athelstan to St Mary's. Wastill, Cofton, &c. 
 7 June, 930. 
 
 This again is rejected by Kemble. Its dating at once arouses sus- 
 picion : Anno dominicae incarnationis DCCCCXXX, regni vero mihi 
 commissi VI, Indictione VII, Epacta III, Concurrente II, Septimis 
 lunii idibus, luna XXI a . 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 33 
 
 Here 930 corresponds with the sixth year of the reign, but all the 
 other terms apply to 934. Moreover, Wulfstan's attestation as arch- 
 bishop of York agrees with the later date. It is a curious fact that 
 B. C. S. 703 [cf . 1344], a grant of Athelstan to St Peter's at York, has 
 the same confusion of dates. We may remember that from 972 to 
 1023 the archbishops of York were also bishops of Worcester 
 Oswald, Aldulf, Wulfstan : so that the connexion between the two 
 churches may have been intimate during the whole of this period. 
 Our charter is said to have been issued at London ; but the York 
 charter is dated on the same day at Nottingham. 
 
 There are other grounds for the rejection of this charter ; but we 
 need only mention here the odd phrase Britannicae gentis in the 
 description of the king's title. 
 
 We conclude, therefore, that not one of the four charters in which 
 Athelstan is represented as making grants to Worcester has any claim 
 to be considered as genuine. Accordingly the supposed evidence for 
 the existence of a church of St Mary and for a community of monks 
 at Worcester before the time of St Oswald disappears entirely when 
 critically investigated. 
 
 B. WYNSIGE AND THE MONKS AT WORCESTER 
 
 The date of the introduction of monks by Oswald into the church 
 of Worcester deserves a more careful consideration than it has yet 
 received. The accepted date is 969, the year to which Florence of 
 Worcester assigns the expulsion of the clerks and the establishment 
 of monks under Wynsige as dean. For this date he claims to have 
 the authority of Oswald himself. 1 This appears to be supported by 
 a charter (B. C. S. 1243) of Oswald, which bears the date 969, and is 
 attested by ( Wynsige monk and all the monks at Worcester '. It is 
 probable that Florence had this charter before him and drew his date 
 from it. 
 
 But we shall presently see tha\ so early a date is inconsistent with 
 the fact that Wynsige had received his habit at Ramsey, and had 
 been under training for several years in that monastery. It is therefore 
 necessary to submit the charter in question to a critical examination. 
 
 We have noticed above (p. 16) that for the years 962 to 969 we 
 
 1 ' Uncle S. Oswaldus sui voti compos effectus, clericos Wigornensis ecclesiae 
 monachilem habitum suscipere renuentes de monasterio expulit ; consentientes 
 vero hoc anno ipso teste monachizavit, eisque Ramesiensem coenobitam Winsinum, 
 magnae religionis virum, loco decani praefecit/ Flor. Wig, sub anno 969. 
 
 C 
 
34 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 have at least thirty charters in which Oswald grants leases for three 
 lives, with a reversion to the church of Worcester. After 969 there 
 is a strange gap 1 until the year 977, when the series recommences. 
 On the one side of the gap the list of the * familia' attesting is headed 
 by 'Wulfric presbiter'; on the other side of the gap 'Wynsige 
 presbiter ' takes the first place, and ( Wulf ric presbiter ' stands next 
 beneath him. 
 
 Next we note that for the year 969 alone we have eleven charters, 
 in ten of which e Wulfric presbiter * stands, as we have said, in the 
 first place, and Wynsige does not appear at all. The eleventh is the 
 exceptional charter which is said to have been attested by c Wynsige 
 monk and all the monks at Worcester'. 
 
 Oswald's charters follow various types, which recur with only the 
 necessary modification of the name of the person who receives the 
 grant and the description of the land granted. The type to which our 
 charter .belongs is seen in its purity in B. C. S. 1238. First comes 
 the date A.D. Then the body of the grant, beginning 'Ego Oswald, 
 superni rectoris fultus iuvamine presul', and ending 'restituatur 
 immunis '. Then the bounds, introduced by the superfluous sentence, 
 * His metis pref atum rus hinc inde giratur ', and beginning e Dis synd 
 ]?a land gemaere . . . ' Lastly, the attestations of Oswald and the 
 ' familia ', some eighteen or twenty in number. 
 
 Frequently, however, we find Saxon notes inserted at various points, 
 before or after the bounds, or at the end of the signatures. These 
 give supplementary grants, or the names of the heirs to whom the 
 property came. In the latter case it is obvious that they are later 
 insertions which the copyist of the charters has embodied. 
 
 Now the charter in which we are interested is constructed as 
 follows : 
 
 (1) The date, followed by c Ego Ospald superni rectoris fultus 
 iuvamine praesul .... restituatur immunis '. 
 
 (2) A Saxon note saying that 'This was done with the witness 
 of Wynsige monk and all the monks at Worcester '. 
 
 (3) f His metis prefatum rus hinc inde giratur. 
 
 (4) pis syndon ]?a land gemaeru . . . .' 
 
 Here there are two divergences from the type : a Saxon note 
 is inserted before the bounds ; and the attestations of Oswald and 
 the members of the 'familia' are missing. As we have not the 
 original charter, but only the copy in Heming's chartulary, we can 
 
 1 Of the two charters dated 973 and 974 we shall speak later : neither contains 
 the list of the f familia '. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 35 
 
 only hazard a conjecture as to the cause of variation. We may 
 suppose that the original charter was mutilated at the end, so that 
 the names were lost ; and that a later scribe wrote on the margin 
 or between the lines the Saxon note which perplexes us. At any 
 rate we are justified in suspecting that the copy does not represent 
 the charter in its original form ; and we shall be prepared to reject 
 the statement about Wynsige and the monks, if we find it to be 
 inconsistent with historical probability. 
 
 After 969 there is, as we have said, a considerable gap in the 
 Worcester charters ; and the next charter which gives us a list of 
 the 'familia' does not come till 977. Oswald became archbishop 
 of York after OskytePs death (1 Nov. 971), possibly hot till 972 
 (Flor. Wig.) ; but he retained the see of Worcester. King Edgar 
 died July 8, 975 : a reaction against the monks who had displaced 
 clerks followed; but we have no indication that Worcester was 
 affected by it. We must now notice two charters which fall within 
 this gap. 
 
 B. C. S. 1293 is a memorandum of a lease granted by Archbishop 
 Oswald at London in 973 : only a few signatories are named, and 
 these are not of the Worcester * familia*. But in 974 we have 
 a charter (B. C. S. 1298) which has no attestations, but is said in 
 a Saxon note to have been granted ' with the witness of Wynsige 
 dean and all the monks at Worcester*. This is a parallel to the 
 charter which we have already considered, and it must be examined 
 in its turn. 
 
 It belongs to another type of Oswald's charters. It begins ' Ego 
 Osualdus archiepiscopus ergo Christi crismate praesul iudicatus 5 : 
 then the date A. D., and the body of the grant ending with the word 
 f restituatur V Next we have the bounds : ( pis syndon . . / After 
 this we have two Saxon sentences: (1) 'This was done with the 
 witness of Wynsige dean and all the monks at Worcester;' (2) 
 6 Brihtlaf was the first man, and now it is held by his sons, Byrhtwine 
 and Byrhtmaer/ There is no list of the ( familia * attesting. 
 
 It is plain that the second of these notes is no part of the original 
 document, but a subsequent addition. The first is perplexing ; but, 
 
 1 The normal opening is ' Ego Ospald ergo Christi crismate presul iudicatus'. 
 In the charter of 974., however, ' archiepiscopus ' is awkwardly inserted : but 
 afterwards it is usual to write f archipresul ' instead of ' presul '. We may note 
 that B. C. S. ] 203 reads : ' Ego Ospold largo Christi carismate praesul dicatus % 
 which perhaps may be the correct form. For recurrence of a blunder compare 
 the phrase ' libera omni reyi nisi aecclesiastici census ' in several charters : as 
 contrasted with ' libera ab omni saecularis rei negotio . . .' in K. C. D. 651, 662. 
 
36 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 as the charter itself is no longer extant, we may well doubt whether 
 our copy faithfully represents it. We seem to see the same hand 
 at work as in the earlier charter of 969. Again we must say that 
 the evidence is not such as will bear any great stress. 
 
 It is strange that Worcester leases should be wanting for these 
 seven years (970-6), with the two exceptions that we have men- 
 tioned. 1 It may be that a batch of charters of this period was found 
 by Heming in a state of almost irrecoverable collapse through damp 
 or other misfortune. As soon as we reach the year 977 we have no 
 less than seven charters (K. C. D. 596, 1012-17), all of which show 
 us Wynsige in the first place, and Wulfric in the second, at the head 
 of the Worcester ( familia \ The main body of the ( f amilia ' remains 
 as we saw it in 969 ; but six new men now appear with Wynsige 
 for the first time, and three of them we presently find described 
 as monks ; no doubt they were the brethren from e the choir of 
 Ramsey', whom Oswald, as we are told, brought to Worcester with 
 Wynsige. 
 
 Here, then, for the first time, we are on firm ground. We can 
 say with confidence that in the year 977 Wynsige and a few other 
 Ramsey monks had become established in the e familia' at Worcester. 
 They may have come in before this date, but we cannot prove it. 
 
 In order to check the date 969, we need to know when the first 
 settlement took place at Ramsey. For the early Life of Oswald 
 tells us that Wynsige received his training in that monastery. 
 
 Oswald met the alderman Ethelwine at the funeral of a knight 
 who died at the time of a great Easter Council, of which neither the 
 place nor the year is mentioned by the early biographer. A few 
 days after this Oswald visited Ramsey, and on his return to Worcester 
 at once dispatched Eadnoth to make preparations for an immediate 
 settlement, which took place on August 29 of the same year. Every- 
 thing was necessarily constructed on the smallest scale ; but the next 
 year saw the beginning of a stone church. 
 
 Now the historian of Ramsey (p. 30), writing at the end of the 
 twelfth century, adds to this information that the funeral of the 
 knight took place at Glastonbury. It is quite possible that this 
 reached him by a trustworthy tradition. And we note with interest 
 that a charter, in which King Edgar confirmed to Bishop Ethel wold 
 the liberties of Taunton, is said to have been granted at an Easter 
 Council held at Cheddar in 968 (B. C. S. 1219). 2 
 
 1 B. C. S. 1299 is wrongly assigned by Birch to 974 : it belongs to 977, though 
 c Edgar ' is written by a scribe's mistake for ' Edward '. 
 
 2 This, however, is not a very satisfactory charter (Winch. Reg.). 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 37 
 
 This year (968) is a traditional date for the first settlement at 
 Ramsey: for in one of the MSS. of the History of Ramsey 
 (cent, xiv) the date 969 is entered in the margin against the notice 
 of the foundation of the new church (p. 40). It is not quite easy, 
 however, to reconcile this date with the narrative contained in the 
 Privilege of King Edgar, to which the writer himself refers, and 
 which is given later in the book. 1 For here we read that the con- 
 secration of the new church took place on Nov. 8, 974, five years 
 and eighteen days after the first temporary buildings had been 
 erected (p. 185) : but this brings us back only to October 969. 2 
 
 Yet another tradition is preserved in the List of Abbots of Ramsey 
 (ibid., p. 339), where Eadnoth is said to have been sent by Oswald 
 from Westbury in 970, and the settlement of twelve monks is assigned 
 to August 29, 972. And, again, the Register of Ramsey distinctly 
 places the foundation of the monastery in 969, the arrival of Eadnoth 
 in 970, and that of the twelve monks from Westbury in 972. 3 
 
 Whether the foundation of Ramsey be assigned to 968, 969, or 
 970, it is difficult to suppose that Wynsige, after being trained there, 
 could have been placed at the head of the Worcester ' f amilia ', at 
 the very earliest, before 972, when Oswald became archbishop of 
 York. We are told in a document of 1092 (Anglia Sacra, i. 542) that 
 he was made prior of Worcester in ( the third year of his conversion ' : 
 and Oswald's biographer (p. 435) speaks of him as follows : 
 
 I His qui sub eo erant in civitate [i. e. at Worcester] anteposuit Wynsinum 
 reverendum presbyterum, qui erat apud nostri coenobii gymnasium eruditus^ cui 
 annexuit quosdam fratres ex nostro choro. 
 
 In conclusion, we are certain from the charters that Wynsige was 
 at the head of the ' familia ' at Worcester in 977. Six years after 
 this Oswald could thank God that he had been able praeter spem 
 to bring to completion the church of St Mary at Worcester (K. C. D. 
 637 : A. D. 983). In view of all that has been said above, the dates 
 969 and 974, which are found in the charters B. C.S. 1243, 1298, 
 where Saxon notes speak of 'Wynsige monk' and 'Wynsige dean', 
 cannot be relied on as satisfactory evidence. 
 
 1 The charter is only of value as evidence of Ramsey tradition of the time 
 when it was forged. 
 
 2 This consecration is probably a pure invention. The Ramsey historian has 
 to make a second consecration, after the repair of the cburch, on November 8, 
 991,, which is the real consecration date in the anon. Life of St. Oswald (pp. 463 f.). 
 
 3 Monasticon, ii. 554 : and for other dates see ibid., p. 546 n. (Ramsey Chartu'ary, 
 Rolls Ser.,iii. 170 if.). 
 
 c 3 
 
38 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 C. ODA, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 
 
 The anonymous Life of St Oswald, which was hailed by historians 
 some thirty years ago as throwing fresh light on the events of the 
 second half of the tenth century, has never been subjected to a 
 critical investigation. 1 Such an investigation must begin with the 
 account of Archbishop Oda which forms its first section. Oda's 
 story has been variously retold by the post-Conquest historians, and 
 it is most desirable to consider the pre-Conquest evidence, in this as 
 in other instances, without allowing it to be confused with the later 
 accretions and interpretations. These Norman or Normanized 
 historians have coloured the history of the tenth century according 
 to their later conceptions; but they had little to guide them that 
 we have not before us to-day, and we need to be constantly on 
 the watch against their misinterpretations and amplifications. In 
 the present note I have sought (1) to bring together the whole 
 of the pre-Conquest evidence as to Archbishop Oda, and then 
 (2) to show how his story has been treated by later writers. 
 
 1. Pre-Conquest Evidence. 
 
 The Life of Archbishop Oda published by Mabillon (Acta SS. 
 O. S. B. vii. 286 ff.) is ascribed by the editor conjecturally to Osbern. 
 This ascription is supposed to be supported by William of Malmesbury, 
 who in his account of Oda says : 
 
 Quantulum autem est testimonium quod ei perhibet Osbermis,, qui eum dicit 
 pro sanctitate et industria sua ab omni Anglorum orbe semper deflendum, nisi 
 Dunstanus successisset (Gesta Font., p.. 24 f.). 
 
 This, however, is a mistaken inference. There is nothing parallel 
 to these words in the Life of Oda. William of Malmesbury is 
 simply quoting from Osbern's Life of St Dunstan (p. 107) : ( nisi 
 Dunstanus succederet, ab omni Anglorum orbe semper deflendus^. 
 
 Wharton, who at first ascribed the Life to- Osbern, changed his 
 mind and ascribed it to Eadmer, mainly on the ground of its 
 appearance among other works of that writer. This latter view 
 seems to have won general acceptance (Anglia Sacra, ii, p. x ; 
 Hardy, Catalogue of Materials, i. 566; W. Hunt, art. 'Oda* in 
 
 1 I have recently endeavoured to sbow that the biographer's account of Edgar's 
 coronation at Bath is largely derived verbatim from a copy of the Coronation 
 Service akin to that which was probably used for King Ethelred. Journal of 
 Theological Studies, October 1917, pp 56 f. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 39 
 
 Diet. Nat. Biogr.). It is confirmed by the results of the following 
 inquiry. 
 
 This Life is mainly drawn from the account of Oda which 
 forms the first section of the anonymous Life of Oswald his 
 nephew, published by Raine (Historians of York, i. 399 ff.) from 
 the Cotton MS., Nero E. 1, in which 'alone it appears to be 
 preserved. 1 
 
 What, then, do we learn of Archbishop Oda from the biographer 
 of Oswald ? First, in order to illustrate his high moral courage, 
 he describes his dealings with the licentious young king Edwy. 
 The king, unfaithful to his wife, had intercourse with another 
 woman. The archbishop rode out with his attendants to the place 
 where this woman was staying, carried her off, and sent her out of 
 the kingdom. The king accepted his admonitions, and he and his 
 whole court submitted humbly to his guidance. 2 
 
 Our author next proceeds to relate three miracles wrought by 
 Oda, one before and one after he became archbishop, the third 
 after his death. e Bright with the roses of spring, he cast forth 
 sin's monstrous thorns after receiving the sacrament of baptism/ 
 Such are our author's flowers of speech, worth noting at this point, 
 because they reappear in later writers whom he has inspired : we 
 may gather from them that Oda was baptized in boyhood, not in 
 infancy. His frequent attendance at church could not be restrained 
 even by his father's threats : ' Some say ', the writer continues, e his 
 father was one of those Danes who came over in the army of the 
 fleet with Huba and Hinwar/ The youth now forsook father and 
 mother and his lawful inheritance, and attached himself to a pious 
 knight named ^Ethelhelm, who showed him a father's affection. 
 In his household Oda received instruction from a man of religion, 
 and presently was ordained deacon : not many months afterwards he 
 received the priesthood. 3 
 
 1 See above, p. 11. 
 
 2 Hist, of York, i. 403. It would seem as if something had fallen out of the 
 text at this point. For after quotations from Isaiah and the Psalms the writer 
 goes on : f Explicita apostolica epistola, ad ordinem Christo iuvaiite redeamus 
 propriae relationis. Quoniam superius beatissimi viri Odonis veneranda 
 memoria facta est ', &c. 
 
 3 There is no suggestion here of premature ordination. The writer's notes of 
 time are extremely vague and are oddly expressed : Oda lives with ^Ethelhelm 
 ' perplurimis mensibus'. Then he was ordained deacon. Then, e after he had 
 passed the time of boyhood and adolescence, and when now the [gap in MS.] of 
 his age was drawing near, he began to glow through the indwelling Holy Spirit 
 shed abroad in him . . .' Then ' excurtis pcrpuucis anni mensibus ' he was ordained 
 priest. 
 
40 ST. OSWALD AND 
 
 After this the knight set out on a pilgrimage to Rome, taking 
 the young priest with him. They had a favourable voyage, but at 
 an inn on the other side yEthelhelm had a heart-attack and was 
 like to die. Oda sent for a cup of wine, made the sign of the 
 cross over it, and gave it to the knight, who presently recovered 
 and continued his journey. After prayers and almsgiving in the 
 sacred city, they returned safely home. They were welcomed by 
 the king, who soon after this made Oda bishop of Wilts. Shortly 
 afterwards the archbishop of Canterbury died, and the king made 
 Oda his successor. 1 
 
 After this he was celebrating the Holy Eucharist, and 'the 
 ancient miracle was in our days renewed 3 : he perceived a drop 
 of blood flow from the true Body of Christ. Amazed, he called 
 a faithful servant who stood near, and showed him secretly the 
 miracle. He bade the archbishop rejoice that God had so highly 
 honoured him, and pray that the sacrament might return to its first 
 form. This done, the archbishop partook of it ; and in honour of 
 the miracle he fed that day the poor, the orphans and the widows. 
 
 A further honour granted to him was that, while he was engaged 
 in repairing and heightening the ancient church at Canterbury, 
 which had been consecrated by St Augustine, no heavy rain fell on 
 the city's walls. The roof of Christ Church had been taken off; 
 the walls were repaired and raised 'bis quinis et denis passibus 
 pedum '. This is not told as one of the three miracles : but later 
 writers greatly improved upon it. 
 
 The third miracle occurred after Oda's death. His successor was 
 ^Elfsin, 'who being puffed up by temporal prosperity rose against 
 the servant of God after his decease, counting him to be dead 3 . 
 One day, standing over his grave, he reproached him, saying: 
 6 Bishop, now liest thou prostrate, and I enjoy the right of triumph. 
 When thou wast living, I had no merit : now thou art gone, I have 
 received my due. 5 The next night Oda appeared in a vision to a 
 certain priest, and said : 6 Go to the bishop, and ask why he con- 
 temned me yesterday and smote me with his staff/ The priest 
 failed, both then and after a second vision, to discharge his task. 
 The third night Oda appeared in more glorious form and warned 
 him no longer to be disobedient. So he bore the message which 
 was given him : * I tell thee that thou shalt cross the sea, and climb 
 
 1 The writer's vagueness as to dates is again apparent : ' Excurso perparvi 
 spatii tempore defunctus est archiepiscopus.' But Oda became bishop of 
 Ramsbury in 927, if not earlier ; and Archbishop Wulfhelm died c. 941, in the 
 second or third year of King Edmund. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 41 
 
 the mountains; but never shalt thou sit in the apostolic seat.' 
 ^Elfsin dismissed the messenger with contempt; but soon after- 
 wards that misfortune befell him which the Spirit had foretold. 
 
 This ends the first section of the biography of Oswald. When 
 the writer passes to his proper subject, he refers to Oda again as 
 superintending Oswald's education, supplying him with the means 
 to purchase for himself a monastery at Winchester, and afterwards 
 sending him with rich gifts to Fleury, where he was to enter on 
 the monastic life. At this point we have the only sentence in 
 which Oda is brought into any connexion with monasticism. 
 Fleury, says our author, was the house from which Oda himself 
 received the monastic habit ( ( ex quo idem pontifex suscepit 
 monasticae religionis habitum'). 
 
 It is plain that the writer had but scant knowledge of the 
 history of Oda's times. The only king whom he mentions by 
 name is Edwy, and his account of him differs from all others : 
 he has nothing to say of the scandal of his coronation day, when 
 Oda sent Dunstan and Kynsige to bring back the young king to 
 the banquet of the nobles ; nor of Oda's divorcing ^Elfgif u, the king's 
 wife, on the ground of a too close relationship. Although the author 
 afterwards makes use of the earliest Life of St Dunstan, he has not 
 employed it as a guide in this opening section. 
 
 As to dates and localities he gives us little help. He does not 
 say where Oda was born, or where the good knight ^Ethelhelm 
 lived. He had heard a report that Oda's father was one of the 
 Danes who came over with Ingwar and Ubba. 1 It is a tempting 
 suggestion that Oda was the Danish boy whom Asser saw in 
 a monk's habit in Alfred's new monastery at Athelney. 2 But 
 Asser wrote in 893, 3 and if Oda died at seventy a supposition 
 which would make him a bishop at thirty-eight and archbishop at 
 fifty-three he must have been born in 888. We might indeed 
 date him a little earlier; in any case the suggestion is not easily 
 reconcilable with what we have been told of his education under 
 ^Ethelhelm's roof, and with the express statement that he received 
 his habit from Fleury. Moreover, there is no evidence, apart from 
 his tenure of the Wilts bishopric, to connect him specially with 
 Wessex. 
 
 1 See above, p. 12. 
 
 2 ' In quo etiam monasterio unum paganicae gentis edoctum in monachico 
 habitu degentem, iuvenem admodum, vidimus,, 11011 ultimum scilicet eorum/ 
 Stevenson, Asser, p. 81. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. Ixxiv. 
 
42 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 Fleury had been reformed about 930, that is twenty years after 
 the foundation of Cluny, and by Odo the second abbot of Cluny : 
 it had, however, retained its independence, and did not come under 
 the Cluniac system of control. It is possible that, as later writers 
 assert, Oda only received his habit thence when he was raised to 
 the see of Canterbury, in 942. Dunstan's great work at Glastonbury 
 was then only beginning ; but, by the time that Oswald decided to 
 become a monk, Glastonbury was well under way, and he might 
 have joined Dunstan and Ethelwold there, in the home of the 
 native movement of reform. Had he been of Wessex stock he 
 would probably have done so : but the nephew of the Danish Oda 
 was guided by his uncle's prepossession to Fleury; and hence is 
 to be explained the influence exercised by that foreign house upon 
 a part at least of the revived monasticism of England. 
 
 We may now gather together such other notices of Archbishop 
 Oda as are to be found in pre-Conquest sources. It will be convenient 
 to begin with the Lives of St Dunstan. 
 
 1. In the Life written by the Saxon priest B, about the year 1000, 
 Oda is mentioned twice. First we have the well-known story that 
 on Edwy's coronation day the boy-king left the royal banquet for the 
 company of two women of high birth, a mother and a daughter, who 
 were designing to entrap him into a marriage with one or other of 
 them. The archbishop, observing the displeasure of the nobles, sent 
 Abbot Dunstan and Bishop Kynesige, Dunstan's kinsman, to bring 
 him back to the royal feast. They found him seated between the 
 two women, the crown lying on the ground. Dunstan forced him 
 away from them, placed the crown on his head, and brought him 
 back to the nobles. The wrath of ^thelgifu, the elder of the women, 
 drove Dunstan into exile. 1 
 
 Oda is again mentioned when his death is recorded, and the tale is 
 told of his successor ^Elfsin, the bishop of Winchester, that he perished 
 of cold in the Alps when on his way to Rome to fetch his pall. But 
 nothing is said of ^Elfsin^s contemptuous reproach of Oda, nor indeed 
 is he discredited in any way. 2 
 
 2. Adelard, in his Life of St Dunstan (c. 1010), speaks of Oda only 
 in connexion with Dunstan's consecration to the see of Worcester. 
 The archbishop, he says, omitting mention of the title of the church 
 to which Dunstan was appointed, to the amazement of all assigned 
 him by title to the Metropolitan Church of Christ at Canterbury. To 
 those who humbly remonstrated he replied : ' I know, beloved, what 
 
 1 Memorials of St Dunstan, ed. Stubbs, p. 32. 2 Ibid., p. 37. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 43 
 
 God speaketh in me;' and this was afterwards accounted an inspired 
 prophecy. 1 
 
 3. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in its pre-Conquest form mentions 
 neither Oda's accession nor his death. But the Worcester Chronicle 
 (D) has under 958 the entry : ' In this year Archbishop Oda separated 
 King Edwy and .#lgifu, for that they were too near akin/ 2 Thus we 
 have three early stories of the interference of Oda in the domestic life 
 of the young king ; and all of them are different, though not neces- 
 sarily irreconcilable. 
 
 4. We will next take the evidence of charters. Birch, Cartularium 
 Saxonicum, 660, prints a charter dated 927, which is attested by 
 ( Odo Scyrburnensis episcopusV This is one of a group of grants to 
 Christ Church, Canterbury (cf. nos. 747, 766), in Cod. Lambeth. 
 1212, in all of which a like attestation is found. They cannot be 
 regarded as authentic copies in their present form. The Canterbury 
 scribe may have added the titles of the bishops' sees. The third of 
 
 1 Ibid., -p. 60. 
 
 2 It cannot, however, be affirmed with certainty that this is pre-Conquest 
 evidence. A.S. Chron. D alone has : 
 
 958. Her on issum geare Oda arcebiscop totwaemde Eadwi cyning^ ^Elgife . 
 
 for^sem f e hi wseron to gesybbe. 
 
 Is this a pre-Conquest statement ? Plummer says (II. Ixxix) : ' We must, 
 therefore, recognize the fact that D as we have it is a late compilation, some of 
 which dates from after 1100, and none of it probably from much before 1100.' 
 This is his judgement, in spite of the fact that Sir G. Warner had said that the 
 earliest hands might be as early as 1050 (p. xxxix). 
 
 Two other entries distinctive of D show an interest in the wives of the kings : 
 
 946. The whole annal is in A, except for the insertion of the following 
 
 words, after the statement that King Edmund died on St. Augustine's 
 
 mass-day : f $ was wide cu^ . hu he his dagas geendode . $ Liofa 
 
 hine ofstang set Puclan cyrcan . "3 ^j>elfl8sd set Domerhame, ^Elfgares 
 
 dohter ealdormannes, wses J?a his cweii.' 
 
 965. Her on Jnssum geare Eadgar cyning genam ^Elfy^e him to cwene, heo 
 
 wses Ordgares dohtor ealdormannes. 
 
 [Inserted also in the marg. of F, which reads: ' ^ElfSry^e him to gebeodan.'] 
 The mention of Liofa as the robber who murdered King Edmund, and of 
 Pucklechurch as the scene of the murder, are only found elsewhere in William of 
 Malmesbury (G. R. 159) and Florence of Worcester. None of the biographers 
 of Dunstan mention the name of the place, not even W. of M., though he says 
 that the ' villa ' was given to Glastonbury for his death-rites ( { data in inferias 
 villa'). 
 
 Florence of Worcester tells the story in a different way from W. of M. , and 
 introduces the word ' cleptor ' from the biographer B (p. 29). 
 
 The Chronicler D does not tell us that Edmund's first wife was .ZElfgifu, the 
 mother of Edwy and Edgar. 
 
 3 Oda's see was Ramsbury ( f Wiltuniensis ', Hist, of York, i. 406). 
 
44 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 the group (dated 941) has f Alfred episcopus' as another witness, 
 without naming his see : but in fact this ^Elfred was the bishop of 
 Sherborne from 933 to 943. Accordingly, we cannot regard no. 660 
 as strong evidence that Oda was already a bishop in 927, though it is 
 quite possible that the date is correct. 
 
 A Winchester charter (B. C. S. 663), attested by c Oda episcopus % 
 is but slender evidence for the year 928 ; but after this he certainly 
 attests as bishop until 941, and as archbishop from 942 onwards. 
 
 His last attestations are in the early part of 957, while Edgar the 
 king's brother is still at court. The most important of these, and 
 possibly the last (May 9, 957), is B. C. S. 999, the original of which 
 is printed in Crawford Charters, no. V. This is a grant from King 
 Edwy of land at Ely ] to Oda himself, ' fidelissimo meo archiepiscopo 
 meoque patrono, toto mentis affectu, cum consensu meorum obtima- 
 tum.' Perhaps the king protests his affection a little too much : the 
 breach must have quickly followed. It is generally supposed that 
 Edwy's marriage with ./Elfgifu caused the archbishop's abstention from 
 court. A Saxon charter (B. C. S. 972), attested by '^Elfgifu the king's 
 wife and ^Ethelgifu the king's wife's mother', has three episcopal 
 witnesses ; but Oda's name does not appear. If it be true that in 
 958 he succeeded in annulling this marriage, yet it cannot be shown 
 by any trustworthy charter that he appeared again at court, and the 
 probable date of his death is June 2, 958. 
 
 The real reason for his withdrawal may have been connected with 
 the breach between Edwy and Edgar, even if he did not openly side 
 with the latter. His consecration of Dunstan for Edgar can hardly 
 have been pleasing to Edwy and his friends. 
 
 Before leaving the charters we may notice a Saxon bequest relating 
 to Christ Church, Canterbury, which gives us the names of some of 
 Oda's clergy and monks (B.C.S. 1010). 'This is the witness of 
 Oda archbishop, Byrhtere, Caenpig, pealdred mass-priests, Sigefreft, 
 Ospeald, FreSegod, Sigered, Heared deacons,' &c. As we cannot 
 date the document, we cannot say positively that Oswald the arch- 
 bishop's nephew is here referred to, though it is not unlikely. Of 
 Frettegod we have further knowledge. 
 
 We may here add that a mention of Oda and his brother Athelstan 
 is found in connexion with Burwell in Hist. Ram., p. 49. 
 
 1 The editors of the Crawford Charters (p. 81) suppose that e set Helig ' cannot 
 mean Ely as the whole of the Isle of Ely was then in the possession of St 
 ^thelthryth's monastery. But was this so ? Is there any reason to mistrust 
 the statement that St Ethelwold bought, c. 970, twenty hides which the king 
 had infra insulam (Lib. Ellens., p. 109) ? 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 45 
 
 5. A poetical Life of Wilfrid is printed by Raine, Historians of 
 York, i. 105 ff. William of Malmesbury informs us that it was 
 written by one Fridegodus. 1 Prefixed to it is a prefatory epistle by 
 Archbishop Oda, in which he declares that he carried the body of 
 Wilfrid from Ripon to Canterbury, thus rescuing it from shameful 
 neglect. The style of this epistle is exceptionally turgid and obscure. 
 For the controversy as to this removal see Raine, ibid, xxxix, xliii. 
 
 6. A letter of Oda to his suffragans, after a synod held in King 
 Edmund^s time, is quoted at some length by William of Malmes- 
 bury : 2 and various synodical constitutions are printed by Wilkins 
 (i. 212 ff.). 
 
 7. Oda is mentioned as having been his patron by Abbo of Fleury, 
 in an acrostic poem addressed to Archbishop Dunstan (Mem. of 
 Dunstan, p. 410) : 
 
 Solus Odo plus cenSor qui iure sacerdoS 
 
 Te pater ante fuiT ; sat nos amplexus amaviT. 
 
 8. The Episcopal Lists contained in Tib. B. 5 were drawn up, 
 probably at Glastonbury, about the year 990 ; being a continuation 
 to Archbishop Sigeric's time of the series contained in C.C.C. Camb. 
 183. 3 Here Oda appears as the second bishop of the see of Wilts 
 (' Wiltunensis'), between ^Ethelstan and JElric. In the list for 
 Canterbury there is no name between Oda and Dunstan. That 
 list ends thus : 
 
 Wulfhelm 
 Oda se goda 
 Dunstan 
 ^Ethelgar 
 Sigeric. 
 
 This is the earliest mention of the title of honour Oda the Good 
 which a later writer tells us was given to Oda by Dunstan himself. 
 It is interesting to note that in the same manuscript Sigeric, who 
 had been abbot of Glastonbury, is entered in the list for Wilts as 
 ' Sigericus dei amicus '. 
 
 2. Notes on ' Vita Odonis Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis '. 
 This Life is printed by Mabillon, Acta SS. O.S.B. vii. 286 ff., ex 
 MS. cod. Thuano-Colbertino. It is assigned to no author in the 
 manuscript, but the editor conjectured that it was written by Osbern 
 
 1 Gesta Pont., p. 22. 2 Ibid., p. 23. 
 
 3 I have discussed these early episcopal lists in The Saxon Bishops of Wells 
 (Oxf. Univ. Press, 1918), pp. 7 ff. 
 
46 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 of Canterbury. Wharton, as we have said above, printed it again 
 in Anglia Sacra, ii. 78 ff., from a Lambeth MS., still ascribing it to 
 Osbern ; but in his preface (p. x) he recants this judgement, and 
 assigns it to Eadmer, among whose works it is found in C.C.C. 
 Cambridge 371. We keep open for the moment the question of 
 authorship. The pages of Anglia Sacra are here quoted, as being 
 the more accessible : the divergence of text is small, save that lines 
 have been dropped in Wharton's edition at several points. 
 
 78. sicut rosa e spinis floruit. Cf . Vita Oswaldi, 403 e ut vernis 
 floruit rosis, et enormes peccaminum spin as post baptismi sacra- 
 mentum defudit '. But here the f spinae ' are his pagan parents ; 
 as in the verses printed by Mabillon at the end of the Life (p. 295) : 
 
 Ut rosa de spinis, sic prodiit Odo paganis. 
 
 79. Graeca et Latina lingua magistris edocendum tradidit ; 
 guarum linguarum plerisque tune temporis in gente Anglorum usus 
 erat a discipulis beatae memoriae Theodori archiepiscopi profectus. 
 Cf. Eadmer, Vita Bregwini (Angl. Sacr. ii. 185): 'Florebat etiam 
 adhuc quaque per Angliam exercitia ac studia literarum, quae ex 
 beati Theodori pontificis Cantuariorum ciusque discipulorum traditione 
 totam terrain magnifice irrigabant. 3 
 
 ita ut posset poemata fingere. Eadmer, in his Life of Wilfrid, 
 ascribes to Oda himself the metrical Life of Wilfrid written by 
 Frithegode, to which Oda wrote the preface : see Raine, Historians 
 of York, I. xxxix. 
 
 Post haec Sacramento baptlsmatis renatus. This is the first 
 serious discrepancy with the Vita Oswaldi, which puts Oda's 
 baptism before the troubles which led him to leave home. 
 
 quantum ad instituta canonum spectat. Oda's premature ordina- 
 tion has no place in the earlier account, though it may possibly have 
 been suggested by certain inexact phrases of it ; as ' deinde excursis 
 perpaucis anni mensibus ', &c. (Osw. y p. 405). In his Life of Dunstan 
 Eadmer lays stress on the regularity of that saint's ordination 
 (p. 173) : ' Dunstanus ergo monachus sine dilatione factus est, et 
 deinde legitimo tempore per canonicas sacrorum ordinum successiones 
 etiam ad sacerdotii gradum . . . provectus/ This is a silent correc- 
 tion of Osbern's account (p. 83) : f celeriter ilium monachal! ac 
 sacerdotali gratia promovit.* 
 
 antiquorum exemplorum auctoritate mctus. Cf. infra 81 : 
 'Canonum fatetur auctoritate prohiberi . . . iuxta veterum monu- 
 menta librorum . . . exemplum . . . victus in his/ &c. 
 
 secreta male actae vitae ei aperire. The statement that the 
 courtiers made him their father-confes&or has no counterpart in the 
 earlier narrative. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 47 
 
 Interea dux regi suggessit. The whole story of the visit to Rome 
 is elaborated. The king, who is Alfred (see supra 78), furnishes 
 gifts : both Athelm and Alfred die nearly at the same time. The 
 writer had plainly identified Athelm with the alderman of Wilts who 
 bore Alfred's gifts to Rome in 887, and died shortly before the king 
 in 898 : see A.S. Chron. sub annis. This identification sufficiently 
 explains his statement as to Oda's premature ordination. If we 
 suppose Oda to have lived to be 90, he must have been born in 868, 
 and would have been only 19 when, being already in priest's orders, 
 he accompanied Athelm to Rome. 
 
 per sex continues dies. Athelm's sudden heart-attack is extended 
 into an illness of six days, and he is made to send all his companions 
 on before him with the exception of Oda. The king to whom Oda 
 is introduced on his return is King Alfred, and not, as in the earlier 
 account, the king who, on hearing of the miracle, made him bishop of 
 Wilts (namely, King Athelstan). 
 
 80. Scireburnae, nunc autem Sarisburiae.. Hermann, bishop of 
 Ramsbury (or Wilts) 1045, and also of Sherborne (or Dorset), 
 removed the see of the united dioceses to Old Sarum c. 1075. 
 Hence the confusion between Wilts and Sherborne, which we have 
 already noted in certain Canterbury copies of charters. 
 
 Anno, &c. The story of the restoration of King Athelstan's sword 
 by Bishop Oda at the battle of Brunanburh does not appear in the 
 early sources. 
 
 81. Ne pontifex ecclesia sua relicta ad aliam migret. This was an 
 important element in the charges against Pope Formosus half a 
 century earlier ; but the controversy seems at that time to have found 
 no echoes in England. In 1122 Eadmer, who had been elected and 
 enthroned as bishop of St Andrews, though not yet consecrated, 
 when urged to resign his claim, declared that this was not possible : 
 the bishops whom he had consulted held tf eum ecclesiam quam 
 canonice electus regendam susceperat nulla ratione iuxta scita 
 canonum indemnatum dimittere posse' (Hist. Nov. iv, p. 299). 
 Similarly, he tells how Hervey, bishop of Bangor, failed to get him- 
 self translated either to Lisieux or to Ely, so long as Anselm lived 
 (ibid. i\i. 139, Pope Paschal's letter : ( Gualensis episcopi causam 
 sacris omnino canonibus obviare non nescis'; and ibid.iv, p. 211). 
 
 Oda's objection is represented as being overcome by the precedents 
 of Mellitus of London and Justus of Rochester; but he could not 
 have been unaware that his immediate predecessors, Athelm and 
 Wulf helm, had been translated from Wells ; apart from these, indeed, 
 the only other precedent was that of Cuthbert, bishop of Hereford in 
 736, translated to Canterbury in 740. 
 
48 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 Omnes qui eis successerunt usque in praesens monachi, ut omnibus 
 constaty extiterint. We have no satisfactory evidence that either 
 Athelm or Wulfhelm was a monk. After Anselm^s death an effort 
 was made to obtain a secular as primate : e obiectum est nullum a 
 beato Augustino nisi de monachico ordine unquam pontificatui Can- 
 tuariensi praesedisse, uno dumtaxat excepto^ (who was deposed by 
 the Pope) : Eadmer, Hist. Nov. iv, p. 222. Accordingly, we see 
 that here again the scruple of a later period has been introduced into 
 the narrative, which thus becomes almost a controversial tract. 
 
 82. Nuncii ad abbatem coenobii sancti Benedicti Floriacensis . That 
 Oda received the monastic habit from Fleury is stated by the bio- 
 grapher of Oswald, who happens to mention it, not in any connexion 
 with his promotion to Canterbury, but as the reason why Oswald 
 himself went to Fleury. But that the abbot of Fleury should have 
 crossed to England to bring the habit to Oda is not very easy of 
 credence. 
 
 In the Life of Oswald by Capgrave (or John of Tynemouth), which 
 is largely drawn from Eadmer's Life of Oswald, Oda is made to 
 become a monk at Fleury in his youth : ( idem vero sanctus Odo in 
 iuventute constitutus mari transito habitum monasticum apud eundem 
 Floriacum susceperat/ * This is probably a conscious correction, but 
 of course no historical weight can be given to it. 
 
 Quidam clerici maligno errore seducti. The original narrative 
 introduced the story of the bleeding of the Host without any contro- 
 versial reference : it was the repetition ( in our days ' of an ancient 
 miracle, and was granted as the reward of Oda's sanctity. Here, 
 however, it is represented as an answer to Oda's prayers, in order that 
 the monstrous error of certain secular clergy might be publicly refuted. 
 The former account lays stress on its secrecy, this on its publicity. 
 Once more, therefore, we find that current controversy has led to the 
 recasting of the narrative. 
 
 83. Nulla aut infusio imbrium aut vis ventorum . . . in tribus annis. 
 The story that no heavy rain fell while the church at Canterbury was 
 roofless is here elaborated. No rain at all and no storm of wind- 
 such was the answer to Oda's special prayers; and this immunity 
 lasted for three years : moreover, heavy rains fell immediately outside 
 the city walls. It may be that this was the gradual growth of a 
 Canterbury tradition, and not the invention of a particular writer. 
 
 Verens ne si ilium, &c. The statement that Edvvy was restrained at 
 first by the fear that Oda might defer his coronation is peculiar to this 
 
 1 Mabillon, Acta SS. 0. 8. B., vii. 709 ; Raine, Hist, of York, ii. 503. 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 49 
 
 account. In the main the Life of Dunstan, in the form in which 
 Osbern cast it, has been followed. The story of Edwy's mistress 
 comes from Oswald's biographer; but her identification with the elder 
 of the two women in the coronation story belongs to the present 
 writer, as also does the mention of Ireland as the place of her banish- 
 ment: the cruelty to which she was finally subjected appears first in 
 Osbern. Oda's prophetic words at Dunstan's consecration are drawn 
 from Adelard's Life of Dunstan, but our author has elaborated the 
 scene. The sentence *non enim lege stringitur sancti spiritus donum* 
 (which is found in Mabillon's text, though not in Wharton's) has 
 a close parallel in Eadmer's Life of Dunstan, p. 195 : 6 non con- 
 stringitur lege donum et vocatio dei/ 
 
 85. Alf sinus . . . cognomento Lippe. This second name is an 
 addition of our author. The charge against ^Elfsin that he had bribed 
 the nobles begins with Osbern' s Life of Dunstan, as also the statement 
 that he had sought promotion to Canterbury on the previous vacancy, 
 when Oda was appointed. The story of his insult to Oda's tomb is 
 considerably embroidered, and new details as to his death in the Alps 
 are introduced. 
 
 86. Odo se gode. The story of the dove which appeared over 
 Dunstan on Whitsun Day, and afterwards rested on Oda's tomb, is not 
 found in the earlier Lives of Dunstan, nor in Osbern's ; but it is the 
 climax of a longer narrative in Eadmer's Life (pp. 202 ff.), where the 
 sentences from f genua flecteret' to <a Cantuaritis appellatur' are 
 almost word for word the same as here. 
 
 As the result of this investigation we may affirm with confidence 
 that the Life of Oda which we have been examining comes to us 
 from the pen of Eadmer, the precentor of Canterbury. 
 
 In his Life of Oswald?- Eadmer has followed Oswald's original 
 biographer in introducing a preliminary description of his uncle 
 Oda. It is interesting to compare this with his Life of Oda which 
 we have just been considering. 
 
 He first tells the story of the restoration of the king's sword at 
 the battle of Brunanburh : portions of the language used are 
 identical with the story in his Life of Oda. Oswald's first bio- 
 grapher has no reference to this incident. 
 
 In the account of Edwy's mistress the original narrative is more 
 closely followed (e. g. c omissa coniuge sua '), and the woman is not 
 identified with one of those who appear in the coronation story. 
 Perpetual banishment to Ireland is spoken of; but no return to 
 England, nor any brutality of treatment. 
 
 1 Raine, Historians of York, ii. 2-5. 
 
50 ST OSWALD AND 
 
 The story of the restoration of Christ Church, Canterbury, is 
 improved by the statement that rain fell outside the city : but the 
 period of three years is not given. 
 
 The bleeding of the Host is recorded, but no controversial use 
 is made of the miracle. 
 
 These are the only incidents related. Nothing is said of the 
 objections raised by Oda on his appointment to the see of 
 Canterbury. 
 
 At a later point, when Oda is sending Oswald to Fleury, the 
 original statement that this was the monastery whence the arch- 
 bishop had himself reoeived the monastic habit is worked up thus : 
 6 Monachus loci illius sum. Habitum enim religionis, ad onus regi- 
 minis sub quo gemo vocatus, inde suscepi/ It is noteworthy that 
 the words here italicized are absent from one of the early MSS. : 
 it is possible that they are a later addition by Eadmer himself. 
 
 As Eadmer gives no hint that he has written a Life of Oda, it 
 is probable that his Life of Oswald is the earlier work. 
 
 William of Malmesbury^s account of Oda in the Gesta Pontificum 
 (pp. 20-4) is almost entirely drawn from the Life of Oda by 
 Eadmer. He does not fall into the mistake of making him bishop 
 of Sherborne, but says expressly that he was bishop of Wilts with 
 his seat at- Ramsbury, 'permanente episcopo in Scireburna'; which 
 looks like a conscious correction of the narrative before him. He 
 plays on the ' rosa e spinis y , saying : ' sicut ortu suo dumorum 
 asperitatem eluctatur rosa, ita depressa feritate Danica, cuius gentis 
 oriundus erat, in magnum specimen bonitatis evasit/ He states that 
 Oda served for a time in warfare under King Edward the Elder: 
 c Eduardo aliquamdiu militans, nee multo post coniam tonsus cleri- 
 catum professus fuerat/ though nothing in the earlier accounts 
 seems to suggest this. The story of King Athelstan's sword at 
 the battle of Brunanburh is complicated by the fact that William 
 had already told it (as he here says) in the Gesta Regum (i. 143 f.), 
 but in a different form. There Anlaf, having made a night attack, 
 surprises and slays a bishop, and then comes suddenly upon the king, 
 who discovers that his sword has fallen out of its scabbard. After 
 invoking God and Saint Aldhelm, he puts his hand to the scabbard 
 again and finds the sword there : the sword, says William, is still 
 preserved in the royal treasury in memory of the miracle. In the 
 Gesta Pohtifioum this story is blended with the story of Oda's 
 restoration of the sword as given by Eadmer. 
 
 Oda is made to cross the sea and fetch his habit from Fleury, 
 when about to be made archbishop. His removal of Wilfrid's bones 
 
THE CHURCH OF WORCESTER 51 
 
 from Ripon to Canterbury is recorded, and the poem which he had 
 written on that saint is said to be the work of a certain Fridegodus. 
 Then a synodal letter is quoted as an example of Oda^s own literary 
 powers. The statement that Oda recovered many properties of the 
 archiepiscopal see, lost by the incursions of the Danes, leads on to 
 the quotation of Osbern^s eulogy, that England would never have 
 ceased to mourn for Oda had not Dunstan been his successor 
 words taken from Osbern's Life of Dunstan. In telling the story 
 of ^Elfsin^s insult to Oda's tomb, he makes the appearance of Oda 
 the next night occur to JSlfsin himself, and not to one of his clergy. 
 At a later point, in speaking of Dunstan (p. 30), he mentions the 
 dove which settled on Oda's tomb, and the title given by Dunstan 
 Odo se gode. 
 
 
 
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