[186] The stories of all these Austin priories are in Dugdale, _Monast. Angl._, vol. vi. pts. i. and ii. Merton is in pt. i. pp. 245–247; Kirkham, _ib._ pp. 207–209. [187] Eadmer, _Hist. Nov._ (Rule), pp. 221–223; Will. Malm., _Gesta Pontif._, l. i. c. 67 (Hamilton, p. 126). The king wanted to appoint Faricius, abbot of Abingdon; his choice was opposed by the seculars, who wanted one of their own party. This the monks of Christ Church resisted, but, as Faricius was obnoxious because he was an Italian, they finally all agreed upon Ralf, and the king confirmed their choice. [188] Eng. Chron. a. 1123; Flor. Worc. Contin. (Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 7; Gerv. Cant., _Actus Pontif._ (Stubbs, vol. ii.), p. 380. On S. Osyth’s see Will. Malm., _Gesta Pontif._, l. ii. c. 731 (Hamilton, p. 146). [189] Eadmer, _Hist. Nov._ (Rule), pp. 195, 211; Flor. Worc. (Thorpe), vol. ii. p. 60; Will. Malm., _Gesta Reg._, l. v. c. 445 (Hardy, p. 680); _Gesta Pontif._, l. iv. c. 185 (Hamilton, p. 325). [190] On Carlisle and Eadwulf (or Æthelwulf) see Joh. Hexham, a. 1133 (Raine, vol. i. pp. 109, 110); and Dugdale, _Monast. Angl._, vol. vi. pt. i. pp. 141–145. Meanwhile a mightier influence than theirs was regenerating all the Churches of the West--our own among the number. Its root was in a Burgundian wilderness; but the seed from which it sprang was of English birth. Harding was an Englishman who spent his boyhood in the monastery of Sherborne in Dorset, till he was seized with a passion for wandering and for study which led him first to Scotland, then to Gaul, and at last to Rome. It chanced that on his return thence, passing through the duchy of Burgundy, he stopped at the abbey of Molêmes. As he saw the ways and habits familiar to his childhood reproduced in those of the monks, the wanderer’s heart yearned for the peaceful life which he had forsaken; he took the vows, and became a brother of the house. But when, with the zeal of a convert, he began to look more closely into his monastic obligations, he perceived that the practice of Molêmes, and indeed of most other monasteries, fell very far short of the strict rule of S. Benedict. He remonstrated with his brethren till they had no rest in their minds. At last, after long and anxious debates in the chapter, the abbot determined to go to the root of the matter, and appointed two brethren, whose learning was equalled by their piety, to examine diligently the original rule and declare what they found in it. The result of their investigations justified Harding’s reproaches and caused a schism in the convent. The majority refused to alter their accustomed ways; finding they were not to be reformed, the zealous minority, consisting of Robert the abbot, Harding himself (or Stephen, as he was called in religion), and sixteen others equally