[32] So says Huet, in his _Origines de Caen_, p. 175, upon the authority of the Chronicle of the _Abbey of Bec_; and no attempt was made to controvert this fact, till the recent publication of the Abbé De la Rue's _Essais Historiques_, in which it is attempted to be proved, from various indirect testimonies, that the building could not have been finished till after the year 1070; indeed, that it could not even have been begun at the time fixed by Huet for its completion, inasmuch as the foundation charter, which must be of a date posterior to 1066, uses the following expression.--"Ego Guillelmus, Anglorum Rex, Normannorum et Coenomanorum princeps, Coenobium in honorem Dei ac Beatissimi prothomartyris Stephani, intra Burgum, quem vulgari nomine vocant, Cadomum, pro salute animæ meæ, uxoris, filiorum ac parentum meorum, _disposui construendum_." [33] See _Neustria Pia_, p. 639. [34] Dom Blanchard, a Benedictine Monk, who left an unpublished history of this monastery, says, "that the Conqueror obtained about the same time from Constantinople, St. Stephen's skull; and that the translation of it into the abbatial church was celebrated by an annual festival on the eighth of October." The Cathedral of Soissons boasted of the possession of the same relic; and of having also procured it from Constantinople.--"Too much confidence," it is prudently observed by a catholic writer on this subject, "must not be placed in the authenticity of those relics, which cannot be traced to the date of St. Gregory of Tours, the sixth century!" [35] Lanfranc, after having for some time directed at Bec the first school ever established in Normandy, upon his translation to Caen, opened another in that town. In the _Lives of the Abbots of Bec_, written in latin verse, in the twelfth century, by Peter, a monk of the convent of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives, particular honor is given to Lanfranc on the subject of his school at Caen, which had produced many men eminent for their proficiency in sacred and secular literature, and was at that time flourishing. The Abbé De la Rue gives a long list of them. _Essais Historiques_, II. p. 70. [36] _Ordericus Vitalis_, in _Duchesne's Scriptores Normanni_, p. 549. [37] _Essais Historiques_, II. p. 64. [38] _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 663. [39] _Neustria Pia_, p. 640. [40] _Gallia Christiana_, II. p. 425. [41] His name is not to be found in the list of abbots given in the _Neustria Pia_; but the authors of the _Gallia Christiana_ say, (XI. p. 480,) "that he was nominated to the prelacy upon the resignation of the thirty-fourth abbot, Charles d'O, and was confirmed in it by the States of Blois. It is admitted, however, that, notwithstanding his appointment in 1596, his predecessor continued to receive the emoluments of the office, till 1624, and enjoyed a large pension arising from them, till his death, in 1627."