give the "Minor" Orders (_i.e._ those beneath the grade of Deacon). [Footnote 237: The history of the Houses outside our county we only touch upon where connected with spots inside.] Thorney was of earlier date; coeval, indeed, with Peterborough. Of its foundation a graphic description is given by the chronicler. After telling how King Wulfhere of Mercia (whose wife was sister to St. Etheldreda), endowed Peterborough and its abbot Sexwulf with broad possessions, he continues: "Then said the King: 'This gift is little, but it is my will they hold it so royally and so freely that neither geld nor fee be taken from it....And thus free will I make this Minster, that it be under Rome alone: and my will it is that all we who may not go to Rome visit St. Peter here.' "While thus he spake, the Abbot prayed of him that he would give him whatsoever he should ask. And the King granted him. Then said the Abbot: 'Here have I God-fearing monks, who would fain live as anchorites (_i.e._, hermits), knew they but where. And here is an island which is called Ancarig[238] (Thorney). And my boon is that we might there build a Minster, to the glory of St. Mary, so that they who would lead the life of peace and rest may dwell therein.' "Then the King answered and said: 'Beloved Sexwulf, lo! not only that which thou hast asked, but all else on our Lord's behalf I thus approve and grant.' ... And King Wulfhere first confirmed it by word, and after subscribed it with his fingers on the Cross of Christ" (_i.e._ he signed his name with a cross, on which he laid his finger, saying, "I deliver this as my act and deed," as we do with the seal on a deed at present. Seals did not come in till the Norman Conquest). Amongst the witnesses to his signature we find "Wilfrid the Priest, who was afterwards Bishop," _i.e._ the great St. Wilfrid of Ripon. [Footnote 238: This name has probably nothing to do with "anchorite," but is of Celtic derivation.] Thorney, however, was long in rising to abbatial dignity, and remained the abode of anchorites, so humble and so sequestered that in the great Danish raid of 870, when Ely and every other Religious House throughout the Fenland was destroyed, the plunderers did not take the trouble to seek it out, and it became a haven of refuge for the survivors of the sack of Crowland. The story is graphically told in the "Chronicle of Crowland"; in its present form probably a thirteenth century work, but obviously compiled from earlier sources. After describing vividly the utter overthrow, at a great battle in Kesteven (West Lincolnshire), of the local forces hastily called out to meet the Danish host, he tells how a few poor fugitives got them to the Church of Crowland, and interrupted the Midnight Service with their crushing tidings.