Eadwine, the last Saxon Abbot, died in 1071, and was buried in the
cloisters; he lay near to the very centre of all the life in the
monastery which had so developed under his wise rule. Here in the
cloisters the monks walked and talked, studied and transcribed; here the
novices and the boy scholars sought their recreation; here was the great
refectory, and close by the infirmary and St. Catherine’s Chapel;
overhead was the long bare dormitory. Surely it was fitting that the
Abbots of Westminster should be laid in the cloisters, and so they
continued to be till the year 1222. You will find the names of many of
them recut on the stone benches in the south cloister, if you look for
them, only unfortunately this was very carelessly done, and in many
cases the names are put over the wrong graves. It seems, too, that
Eadwine’s body was moved from the south cloister and laid in the passage
leading to the Chapter-House, close to the faithful Hugolin, who was the
Chamberlain and close friend of the Confessor.
William appointed in Eadwine’s place Geoffrey, a Norman, but so evil
were his ways that at the end of four years, "having been first
admonished by the king and Archbishop Lanfranc, but not amending upon
the admonition," he was deprived and sent back to Normandy in disgrace,
where he died. He was followed by Vitelus, Abbot of Bernay, held by
William to be wise and a man of business, as indeed it was necessary the
ruler of a large monastery should be, and among other things "being a
stirring man, he let the monk Sulcardus, the best pen they had belonging
to the Abbey, draw up the history of the place to give it a figure in
the world."
During the rule of Geoffrey, the Lady Eadgytha, widow of Harold, died at
Winchester, and was buried with great honour in the tomb of her husband,
a tomb which each year became more and more of a holy place to the
people of England. Under the hard rule of William, who, in the words of
that honest chronicler Master Richard Wuce, "was eke so stark a man and
wroth that no man durst do anything against his will, beyond all metes
stark to those who withstood his will," the hearts of the people turned
to that tomb of an English king, as the source from which they might
hope for deliverance, as the spot of comfort from whence came signs from
heaven that the saintly king still watched over his sorely tried people.
On one day, a council of Norman clergy was assembled in St. Catherine’s
Chapel at Westminster, their object being to deprive the holy Wulstan,
Bishop of Worcester, of his see, on the ground that "he was a very
idiot, being unacquainted with the French language." Lanfranc ordered
him to deliver up his staff and ring. But Wulstan was before all else an
Englishman.
"Truly, my Lord Bishop," said he, "you claim from me the pastoral staff
which it was not you who crave me. In deference to your judgment I
resign it, though not to you, but to Saint Edward, by whose authority I
received it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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