Part 6 (1/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: Church of S. John the Baptist and Guildhall.]
=The Guild Hall=, in the Market Place, is an effective little building, dated 1671. The lower part is open, and is used for the b.u.t.ter market.
While sufficient for the transaction of borough business 100 years ago, it is altogether inadequate now to the requirements of a corporation.
Until a very few years ago there was a mediaeval building at Peterborough of the greatest interest. This was the old =t.i.the Barn= of the Abbey, situated in the Manor of Boroughbury, on the Lincoln Road. It was much the finest in the kingdom. Unhappily the ”enterprising builder”
has obtained possession of it, and it has been pulled down, the materials, all Barnack stone, having been employed in building houses.
It was of good thirteenth century work, and in perfect condition. On the east side were two large porches, by which a waggon fully laden could enter the barn. The roof was supported by very ma.s.sive timbers rising from the ground, the whole arrangement resembling a wooden church with aisles.
=The Museum= in Queen Street is noted for its collection of Roman and Saxon antiquities from the city and district; amongst the former are the noted coffin tile stamped LEG IX. HISP.; the vase showing a coursing match with the hare and hounds in relief, coins, pottery, brooches, and other jewellery. The Saxon specimens consist of pottery, jewellery, and weapons chiefly exhumed at Woodston, about one mile south-west of the river bridge.
The interesting collection of bone, wood, horn, and straw marquetry work made at Norman Cross (5 miles) by the French prisoners during the years 1797 to 1814, is unique. MSS. of the Northamptons.h.i.+re poet, John Clare, are preserved in this inst.i.tution, together with a large number of other local works.
CHAPTER V.
HISTORY OF THE MONASTERY.
The inhabitants of the Fen country, when first distinguished by a special name, were known as the Gyrvii. Their district included the south part of Lincolns.h.i.+re, the north part of Northamptons.h.i.+re, and the greater part of Cambridges.h.i.+re. The southern Gyrvii were a province of East Anglia; the Gyrvii of the north appear to have been allied to the East Anglians, and perhaps inclined to become united with them; but they were ultimately absorbed in the great Midland Kingdom of Mercia. Bishop Stubbs,[29] speaking of the early Fasti of Peterborough, says: ”Mercia, late in its formation as a kingdom, sprang at once into a great state under Penda; late in its adoption of Christianity, it seems from the period of its conversion to have taken a prominent place at once among the Christian powers. The Chronicle places the conversion in 655, and a very few years saw it the best governed and best organised province of the Church. In less than thirty years it was divided into five dioceses, amongst which the place of the Fen country is more clearly definable.
The bishopric of Lindsey occupied the north of Lincolns.h.i.+re, reaching to the Witham: a line drawn from the south point of Nottinghams.h.i.+re to the Cam would probably represent the western border of the Gyrvii; the border of Cambridges.h.i.+re was the boundary of the dioceses of Elmham and Dunwich. The Fen country thus falls into the eastern portion of the great Lichfield diocese, which for a few years after 680 had its own bishop at Leicester, but was not finally separated from the mother see until 737.”
The date given above for the conversion of Mercia, 655, is the date of the laying of the foundation of the monastery of Medeshamstede. Penda had been succeeded on the throne of Mercia by his eldest son, Peada; and he, in conjunction with Oswy, brother of King Oswald, determined to ”rear a minster to the glory of Christ and honour of Saint Peter.”
=Saxulf= (656-675), was the first Abbot. In Bede no mention is made of royal patronage, and the whole credit of founding the abbey is given to Saxulf. Another account represents him as having been a thane of great wealth and renown, and that this abbey was dedicated by him ”as the first fruits of the Mercian church.” He was made Bishop of Lichfield in 675, but continued to take an active part in the affairs of the abbey.
He died in 691.
=Cuthbald= (675), is named in the Chronicle as having been second Abbot.
One of this name, possibly the same, was ruling the monastery at Oundle in 709, when S. Wilfrid died there. Nothing further is known of him; and nothing at all of =Egbald=, who appears in the usual lists as his successor.
The chroniclers give for the fourth Abbot one Pusa. But Bishop Stubbs has proved that =Bothwin= was Abbot from 758 to 789; and concludes that the introduction of Pusa into the list is a mistake, if not a mere invention.
Abbot =Beonna= came next, probably in 789 or very soon afterwards.
”Possibly this Beonna is the same who was made Bishop of Hereford in 823, and died in 830.”
=Ceolred= succeeded, and in the year 852 signs a grant of land as Abbot.
Patrick conjectures that he became a bishop, but does not name his diocese. There is no certainty about the dates at which these early abbots entered upon their office; and possibly some names have been altogether lost. But all accounts agree that the last Abbot of Medeshamstede was =Hedda=; and that he perished when the monastery was destroyed and its inmates killed by the Danes in 870. A graphic account of the circ.u.mstances attending this attack is given by Ingulf; but as authentic historians like Orderic and Malmesbury have no reference whatever to the occurrences described by Ingulf, Bishop Stubbs unwillingly is obliged to consider his version to be a pure romance. But of the fact itself, the utter destruction of the monastery, there is no question; nor of the fact that all the inmates, or nearly all, perished.
We read that at Crowland some monks escaped the general slaughter, and met again, after the departure of the Danes, and elected a fresh abbot.
They then came to Medeshamstede, and buried the bodies of those that had been murdered, in one vast tomb. It has been commonly supposed that the Monks' Stone, before described, was the stone erected at the time in commemoration of the disaster. The arguments against this supposition have been already given.
The Fen monasteries remained desolate for 100 years. During that period the lands were constantly being seized by different intruders. It was not till the time of Alfred the Great, who came to the throne in 871, that the invasions of the Danes were finally checked, and tranquillity restored to the kingdom. Security being a.s.sured, the people began again to improve their public buildings and the religious houses. Crowland was the first in the neighbourhood to be restored. This restoration was effected by Thurketyl. Instigated probably by his example, Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, encouraged and supported by King Edgar, rebuilt the monastery of Medeshamstede after the old model. The rebuilding was completed in 972; and the name of Burgh was given to the place, and the old name went altogether out of use.
The first Abbot, after the re-establishment of the monastery, was =Aldulf= (971-992), formerly Chancellor to the King. He is said to have accidentally caused the death of his only son, and feeling that he could no longer live happily in the midst of earthly vanities, he endowed this monastery with all his possessions, and was appointed to govern it.
Gunton declares that the prosperous and wealthy condition of the abbey under the rule of Aldulf caused its name to be improved into Gildenburgh, the Golden Borough. At this time most of the neighbouring woods were cut down and the land brought into cultivation. Aldulf became Bishop of Worcester after remaining twenty years at Burgh; and in 995 was made Archbishop of York. He died in May 1002, and is buried at Worcester. He held indeed the See of Worcester with that of York till his death.
He was succeeded at Burgh by =Kenulf= (992-1005). He is described as famous for his wisdom and learning, and as having governed his abbey ”most admirably and sweetly.” In 1005 he was made Bishop of Winchester, not without suspicion of a corrupt purchase (_episcopatum nummis nundinatus fuerat_), and died the following year.
The next Abbot, =Elsinus= (1006-1055), was remarkable chiefly for the number of relics he collected, designing thereby to increase the fame and wealth of the monastery. Dean Patrick thinks that before Elsinus there was an abbot named KINSINUS, whose name he found in one record; but he adds that if he were really abbot it could at most have been for a few days or months. The list of relics gathered together by Elsinus is extensive. At least eighty are enumerated. It speaks volumes for the credulity of the age when we find in this list such things as the following:--A portion of Aaron's rod that budded; a portion of one of the five loaves that fed the five thousand; a shoulder-blade of one of the Holy Innocents; two pieces of the Virgin Mary's veil; part of the stone paten of the Evangelist S. John. The great relic of the house was the arm of S. Oswald. The date when this was acquired is not certainly known, some thinking that this period is too early a date to a.s.sign to its acquisition. Bede relates[30] ”that this Oswald, King of Northumberland, was very free and liberal in giving of alms to the poor; and one day whilst he sate at meat, one of his servants told him of a great number of poor people come to his gate for relief; whereupon King Oswald sent them meat from his own table, and there not being enough to serve them all, he caused one of his silver dishes to be cut in pieces, and to be distributed amongst the rest; which Ayda.n.u.s, a Bishop (who came out of Scotland to convert, and instruct those Northern parts of England), beholding, took the King by the right hand, saying, _nunquam inveterascat haec ma.n.u.s_, let this hand never wax old, or be corrupted; which came to pa.s.s. This arm was first deposited at Bamburgh, a religious place in Yorks.h.i.+re.[31] Walter of Whittlesey writing the story thereof, tells that it was brought to the monastery of Burgh by Winegotus of Bebeberch, but saith not when, therefore I cannot conjecture better than that it was by the procurement of this Abbot Elsinus. It is said that this arm wrought many cures upon several diseased folk; and that it was of such fame in the days of King Stephen, as that he himself came to Peterburgh purposely to see it; and offered his ring to S. Oswald, and also remitted to the monastery the sum of forty marks wherein it was indebted unto him.” It is specially recorded in the Chronicle that this abbot took advantage of the poverty of an abbey in Normandy, the district having been afflicted with a grievous famine, and purchased from it the body of S. Florentinus, with the exception of the head, for one hundred pounds of silver.