down to the close of the last century, the Dean possessed, by virtue of this position, considerable power in controlling the elections, even then stormy, of the important constituency of Westminster. 2 In like manner the See of London, whilst it stretches on every side, has never but once penetrated the precincts of Westminster. The Dean, as the Abbot before him, still remains supreme under the Crown. The legend of the visit of St. Peter to the fisherman had for one express object the protection of the Abbey against the intrusion of the Bishop of London. From that time there was no King so undevout that durst it violate, or so holy a Bishop that durst 'it consecrate.' 93 The claims to be founded on the ruins of a Temple of Apollo, and by King Sebert, have the suspicious appearance of being stories intended to counteract the claims of St. Paul's Cathedral to the Temple of Diana, and of its claim to that royal patronage. Even the haughty Dunstan was pressed into the service, and was made, in a spurious charter, to have relinquished his rights as Bishop of London. The exemption was finally determined in the trial between Abbot Humez and Bishop Fauconberg, in the thirteenth century, when it was decided in favour of the Abbey by a court of referees; whilst the manor of Sudbury was given as a compensation to the Bishop, and the church of Sudbury to St. Paul's Cathedral.5 An Archdeacon of Westminster, who is still elected by the Chapter, exercised, under them for many years, an archidiaconal jurisdiction in the Consistory Court under the and offer up their devotions in Henry VII.'s Chapel. (Widmore, p. 161.) It is probably a relic of this which exists in the payment for the Lord Mayor's Candle' in the Abbey. There was an attempt made in 1845, under the energetic episcopate of Bishop Blomfield, to include the Abbey in the diocese of London, but it was foiled by the vigilance of CC Bishop Wilberforce, who, for that one year, occupied the Deanery of Westminster. 2 See Chapter I. pp. 10, 21. More's Life of Richard III., 177. 4 Wharton, Ep. Lond. p. 247. 5 Ibid. p. 29; Widmore, p. 38. For the privileges in detail, see Flete, c. ii. xii. • Wills were proved there till 1674. THE South-western Tower. In the sacred services of the Abbey neither Archbishop nor Bishop, except in the one incommunicable rite of Coronation, was allowed to take part without the permission of the Abbot, as now of the Dean. When Archbishop Turbine consecrated Bernard Bishop of St. David's, that Queen Maud might see it, probably in St. Catherine's Chapel, it was with the special concession of the Abbot.1 When the Bishop of Lincoln presided at the funeral of Edward I., it was because the Abbot (Wenlock) had quarrelled with Archbishop Peckham.2 From the time of Elizabeth, the privilege of burying great personages has been entirely confined to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. From the first occasion of the assembling of the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury within the precincts of Westminster, down to the present day, the Archbishop has always been met by a protest, as from the Abbot so from the Dean, against any infringement of the privileges of the Abbey. The early beginnings of the Monastery have been already traced. Its distinct history first appears after the Conquest, and is concentrated almost entirely in the Abbots. As in all greater convents, the Abbots were personages of nearly episcopal magnitude, and in Westminster their peculiar relation to the Crown added to their privileges. The Abbots since the Conquest, according to the Charter of the Confessor, were, with two exceptions (Humez and Boston), all chosen from the Convent itself. They ranked, in dignity, next after the Abbots of St. Alban's. A royal license was always required for their election, as well as for their entrance into possession. The election itself required a confirmation, obtained in person from the Pope, who, however, sometimes deputed the duty of installation to a Bishop. On 1 Eadmer, p. 116. 2 Ridgway, pp. 103, 104; Wykes. 4 St. Alban's see Matthew Paris, p. 355. (Weever's Monuments, p. 232.) 4 Ware. their accession they dropped their own surnames, and took the names of their birthplaces, as if by a kind of peerage. They were known, like sovereigns, by their Christian names— as Richard the First,' or 'Richard the Second"-and signed themselves as ruling over their communities by the grace of 'God.' They were to be honoured as Vicars of Christ.' When the Abbot passed, every one was to rise. To him alone the monks confessed.2 A solemn benediction answered in his case to an episcopal consecration. If, after his election, he died before receiving this, he was to be buried like any other monk; but otherwise, his funeral was to be on the most sumptuous scale, and the anniversary of his death to be always celebrated.3 1049-68. Windsor Edwin, the first Abbot of whom anything is known, was pro- Edwin, bably, through his friendship with the Confessor, the secret founder of the Abbey itself. He, though as long as he lived he faithfully visited the tomb of his friend, accommodated himself with wonderful facility to the Norman Conqueror, and in that facility laid the foundation of the most regal residence in England. Amongst the Confessor's donations to Westminster, Origin of there was one on which the Conqueror set his affections, for his retreat for hunting, by reason of the pureness of the air, 'the pleasantness of the situation, and its neighbourhood to 'wood and waters.' It was the estate of the winding' of the Thames Windsor.'4 This the Abbot conceded to the King, and received in return some lands in Essex, and a mill at Stratford; in recollection of which the inhabitants of Stepney, Whitechapel, and Stratford used to come to the Ware, p. 403. 2 Archives of St. Paul's, A.D. 1261. Ware, p. 10.-The MS. is here very imperfect; but for the funerals see the Islip Roll, and for the general privileges, see Chronicle of Abingdon, ii. 336-350. 'Neale, i. 29. Windles-ore, not the winding shore,' as is generally said, but, as I have been informed by a learned Scandinavian scholar, the 'winding sandbank,' or 'the sandspit ' in a winding,' as in Helsing-or (Elsinore). Castle. Geoffrey, Gislebert 1082 1114. Herbert, Abbey at Whitsuntide; and two bucks from the forest of Windsor were always sent the Abbot on the Feast of St. Peter ad Vincula. Edwin was first buried in the Cloister; afterwards, as we shall see, in the Chapter House. In To Edwin succeeded a series of Norman Abbots-Geoffrey, Vitalis, Gislebert, Herbert, and Gervase, a natural son of King Stephen. Geoffrey was deposed and retired to his original Abbey of Jumieges, where he was buried. Vitalis's time the first History of the Abbey was written by one of his monks, Sulcard. Gislebert was the author of various scholastic treatises, still preserved in the manuscripts Laurence, of the Cottonian Library. Then followed Laurence, who procured from the Pope the canonisation of the Confessor, and with it the exaltation of himself and his successors to the rank of mitred Abbot. 1121-40. Gervase, 1140-60. 1160-91. Postard, 11911200. 3 Down to the time of Henry III, the Abbots had been buried in the eastern end of the South Cloister. Three gravestones still remain, with the rude effigies of these as yet unmitred dignitaries. But afterwards-it may be from the increasing importance of the Abbots-the Cloisters were left to the humbler denizens of the monastery. Abbot Papillon, died 1223. though degraded from his office nine years before, was buried in the Nave. Abbot Berking was buried in a marble tomb before the High Altar in the Lady Chapel,5 then just begun Papillon, 1200-14, Humez, 1214-22. Berking, 1222-46. 1 Akermann, i. 74. 2 Cartulary; Dugdale, i. 310. Flete MS.-The names of the the bell; Vitalis (under a small slab) and Gislebert (with an effigy) at the foot of Gervase (under a small stone); Humez (with an effigy) at the head of Gervase. The dinner-bell probably was hung in what was afterwards known as Littlington's Belfry. 5 It was removed when Henry VII.'s Chapel was built, and his grave is now at the steps leading to it. The grey stone and brass were visible till late in the last century. (Crull, p. 117; Seymour's Stow, ii. 613.) 1246-58. at his instigation. Crokesley, who succeeded, had been the Crokesley, first Archdeacon of Westminster, and in his time the Abbey was exempted from all jurisdiction of the See of London. He lived in an alternation of royal shade and sunshinesometimes causing the King to curse him and declare, It 'repenteth me that I have made the man ;' and send criers up and down the streets of London warning every one against him; sometimes, by undue concessions to him, enraging the other convents, almost always at war with his own. He was buried first in a small Chapel of St. Edmund, near the North Porch, and afterwards moved to St. Nicholas's Chapel, and finally, in Henry VI.'s time, to some other place not mentioned.2 The exemption from the jurisdiction of the See of London led to one awkward result. It placed the Abbey in immediate dependence on the Papal See, and the Abbots accordingly (till a commutation and compensation was made in the time of Edward IV.) were obliged to travel to Rome for their confirmation, and even to visit it once every two years. The inconvenience was instantly felt, for Crokesley's Lewisham, successor, Peter of Lewisham, was too fat to move, and before the matter could be settled he died. The journey, however, was carried out by the next Abbot, Richard de Ware, Ware, and with material results, which are visible to this day. On his second journey, in 1267, he brought back with him 1 Matt. Paris, 706, 726. 2 Flete. On July 12, 1866, in making preparations for a new Reredos, the workmen came upon a marble coffin under the High Altar. Fragments of a crozier in wood and ivory, and of a leaden paten and chalice, prove the body to be that of an Abbot; whilst the absence of any record of an interment on that spot, and the fact that the coffin was without a lid, and that the bones had been turned over, show that this was not the original grave. These indications point to 1258. 1258-84. |