[54] Chron. and Mem., 67, i. 416. [55] Id. ii. 242. [56] Compare the title of a modern leper-house at Kumamoto in Kiushiu, known as “The Hospital of the Resurrection of Hope”: and in Japanese _Kwaishun Byōin_—“the coming again of spring.” [p070] CHAPTER VI FOUNDERS AND BENEFACTORS “_Hospitals . . . founded as well by the noble kings of this realm and lords and ladies both spiritual and temporal as by others of divers estates, in aid and merit of the souls of the said founders._” (Parliament of Leicester.) As our period covers about six centuries, some rough subdivision is necessary, but each century can show patrons of royal birth, benevolent bishops and barons, as well as charitable commoners. The roll-call is long, and includes many noteworthy names. FIRST PERIOD (BEFORE 1066) First, there is the shadowy band of Saxon benefactors. ATHELSTAN, on his return from the victory of Brunanburh (937), helped to found St. Peter’s hospital, York, giving not only the site, but a considerable endowment. (See p. 185.) Among other founders was a certain noble and devoted knight named ACEHORNE, lord of Flixton in the time of the most Christian king Athelstan, who provided a refuge for wayfarers in Holderness. Two Saxon bishops are named as builders of houses for the poor. To ST. OSWALD (Bishop of Worcester, died 992) is attributed the foundation of the hospital called after him; but the earliest documentary reference to it is by Gervase of Canterbury (_circa_ 1200). ST. WULSTAN (died 1094) [p071] provided the wayfarers’ hostel at Worcester which continued to bear his name. Wulstan, last of the Saxon founders, forms a fitting link with Lanfranc, foremost of those Norman “spiritual lords” who were to build hospitals on a scale hitherto unknown in England. SECOND PERIOD (1066–1272) [Illustration: 10. “THE MEMORIAL OF MATILDA THE QUEEN”]