The Bayeux Tapestry ElucidatedBruce, J. Collingwood (John Collingwood)
History
The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated
Bruce, J. Collingwood (John Collingwood)
Bayeux tapestry
Under all these circumstances, Stigand, on being
made archbishop of Canterbury by the Confessor, was not very sanguine of
having the appointment confirmed by the Pope, and instead of making an
immediate application to Rome, quietly took possession of the _pallium_,
which his predecessor in his haste had left behind him. At length he did
apply, and Benedict X., for reasons arising out of his own peculiar
position, granted him the _pallium_. This, however, only made matters
worse. Benedict X. was speedily dethroned by an army from beyond the
mountains, and a new pope elected, who excommunicated his predecessor
and annulled all his acts. Stigand, therefore, found himself once more
without the _pallium_, accused of usurpation, and charged with a new
and much more serious crime, that of having solicited the favour and
countenance of a false and excommunicated pope. If the Tapestry had been
constructed after Lanfranc had planted his foot upon the necks of the
English clergy, Stigand would not have been denominated archbishop. When
William of Malmesbury has occasion to name him, he calls him “the
pretended and false archbishop.”
The Norman chroniclers, for the most part, agree with the Tapestry in
stating that Harold was crowned by Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury.
Florence of Worcester and Roger of Hoveden state, that the solemn
ceremony was performed by Aldred, Archbishop of York. Roger of Wendover
says that the King “placed the diadem on his own head.”
The dress of the archbishop nearly resembles that of a Roman Catholic
prelate of the present day. The _stole_ will be observed. The _pallium_,
which subsequently was made of pure white wool, is in Stigand’s case
purple.[66] The _maniple_ which, at a later period was worn upon the arm
of the priest, is in the Tapestry, and other contemporaneous drawings,
placed on the wrist. But the circumstance most observable in the costume
of Stigand is the absence of the mitre. This distinctive decoration of
the episcopal office seems not to have been known at this period. It is
not met with in the Catacombs of Rome. In the illustrations of the
_Benedictional of St. Æthelwold_ we have priests and apostles in great
numbers, but none of them wear a mitre, unless the circle round the head
of St. Benedict be one. The same remark applies to the illustrations of
the metrical _Paraphrase_ of Cædmon. The bishops of the Lewes chess-men,
which seem to have been executed about the middle of the twelfth
century, probably furnish us with the earliest British examples of a
mitre. The mitres worn by the ecclesiastics who support the head of the
sovereign on the tomb of King John, at Worcester, are also early
examples.[67]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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