We begin with the history of Elsinus, or Helsinus. He is not an imaginary personage, but one whose story is historically true. He was monk at St Augustine’s, and then Abbot of Ramsay under William the Conqueror. A legend, current in the middle ages in various forms as either a sermon or a letter of Anselm the Elder, states that he was sent by William with presents to the King of Denmark, in order to discover if he contemplated an invasion of England. Having fulfilled his embassy, he was overtaken on his return voyage by so severe a storm that the ship seemed about to be dashed in pieces. As all were invoking our Blessed Lady in this moment of peril, a form arrayed in episcopal vestments appeared, which was supposed to be St Nicholas, the patron of sailors. He addressed Elsinus by name, and promised him he would be saved, if he in his turn promised to celebrate the feast of our Lady’s Conception annually on the 8th December, and to exhort others to celebrate it also. Elsinus promised, and all were saved.[531] This legendary narrative was adopted formerly for the lections in the Breviary,[532] but more recently it has been altogether discredited. The learned Maurist Gerberon, editor of St Anselm’s works, in particular has objected to this narrative on the grounds that after the battle of Hastings in 1066, William returned to Normandy, and the landing of the Danes followed immediately. Gerberon has overlooked the fact that since Elsinus undertook this journey as Abbot, not as a simple monk—which in itself would have been highly improbable—it must be placed between 1080 and 1087, not in 1066. However, although the story be a legend, yet this much is true, that Elsinus did introduce the feast of the 8th December into his monastery.[533] That Anselm the Younger introduced it into his monastery at Bury St Edmonds is proved by two letters, dating from 1128-29, of Osbert de Clare, a zealous defender of the doctrine. He laments that two bishops, Roger of Salisbury and Bernard of St Davids, have opposed the introduction of the feast. They had even held a Synod, and forbidden the feast as an absurd novelty. This fact, and also the circumstance that Osbert himself in a sermon on the 8th December made no mention of the Immaculate Conception of Mary from fear of the opponents, as he himself says, show how strong the opposition to both feast and doctrine must have been among the Anglo-Saxon secular clergy of that period.[534] From what has been said it can be regarded as historically certain that the feast of Mary’s Conception was observed in many Benedictine monasteries in England, about the year 1128—in Ramsay, Bury St Edmonds, Reading, Worcester and Westminster.[535]