been interred, into the choir of the Cathedral built by Gundulph, and were there placed in a shrine cased with silver, at the expense of Archbishop Lanfranc, The fourth Bishop, named Ithamar, was born at Canterbury, and is recorded as the first Englishman who obtained a prelacy in his own country: he also was regarded as a Saint, and his remains were translated into Gundulph's Church, by Bishop John, between the years 1125 and 1137. The Priory of St. Andrew was at an early period possessed of a legend of his miracles;* and his memory, like that of Paulinus, was revered for centuries: he died in 655. Tobias, the ninth Bishop, became eminent for his knowledge of the Greek, Latin, and Saxon languages; and is highly praised by Bede for his literary merits. He died in 726, and was buried within the original Church, in the portico of St. Paul's, which he had purposely built for his sepulchre. These three Bishops are the only ones known to have been interred in the ancient Cathedral, of all the twenty-eight that held the See prior to the Norman Invasion.

The possessions of the Bishops, and of the Secular Priests, were occasionally increased by new grants from the Saxon Kings; yet the many losses sustained during the wars between the states of the Heptarchy, and in the subsequent destructive incursions of the Danes, caused such a considerable defalcation in their respective revenues, as to leave them scarcely sufficient for a decent maintemance. At the time of the Conquest, the Church was in such a state of poverty, that Divine worship was entirely neglected in it.'§ And even the Secular Canons, though reduced to four or five in number,' were obliged to depend for a portion of their sustenance on the alms bestowed by the pious,

The accession of the Conqueror was marked by new spoliations; nearly all the estates that remained to the Church were given to VOL. VII. OCT, 1806. S's Bishop

*Registrum Roffense, p. 6.

+ Tobiam pro illo consecravit, virum Latina, Græca, et Saxonica lingua atque eruditione multipliciter instructum.” Histor. Beda, B. v. Cap. 8.

+ Ibid. Cap. 23.

§ Hasted's Kent, Vol. II. p. 22. Fa.

Bishop Odo; and the See itself, neglected by its Primate, seemed verging rapidly to entire dissolution. Lanfranc, whom the revolutions of empire had advanced to the See of Canterbury, and who appears to have been unfeignedly zealous in his endeavors to promote the interests of religion, raised Ernost, a Monk of the Abbey of Bec, in Normandy, to the Bishopric of Rochester, in 1607, for the avowed purpose of improving its affairs. The death of Ernost, in the same year, made room for Gundulph, who was appointed by Lanfranc in 1077, and who, also, had been a Monk in the Abbey of Bec. He was a native of the diocese of Rouen, in Normandy; and, according to a tradition preserved by William of Malmsbury,* his advancement had been foretold by Lanfranc, from a trial made by the Sortes Evangelica, many years before either of them could have entertained the most distant idea of their subsequent promotion to episcopal dignities.

Gundulph proved a most active agent in the re-establishment of this See; and the estates granted by the Conqueror to Bishop Odo, having been recovered by Lanfranc in a Solemn Assembly, held during three days at Pinenden Heath, he determined to rebuild the Church, which was now in a state of complete ruin. By his own exertions, also, he recovered the Manor of Isleham, in Cambridgeshire, which had been taken possession of by Pichot, the Sheriff; and having removed the Secular Clergy from the Priory of St. Andrew, he replaced them by Benedictine Monks, to whom he conveyed the greatest part of the estates belonging to his See; and was likewise the means of procuring for them considerable acquisitions, in grants of land, and other property. Out of those manors, however, which he had assigned to the Monks, he reserved to himself, and successors, a right to certain articles of provision, which were to be rendered annually, on St. Andrew's day, under the name of a Xenium.†

* W. Malmsb. de Gestis Pontif.

The

From Zivov; a present given in token of hospitality. The original record concerning this provision, has been copied into the Registrum Roffense: it differs, in a few particulars, from another copy preserved in

the

The Cathedral erected by Gundulph, if a judgment can be formed from the remains of his building, still apparent in the nave, and west front, must have been a magnificent and spacious edifice. His friend, Archbishop Lanfranc, advanced large sums towards its erection; and it appears, also, that he was assisted by gifts from William the Conqueror, William Rufus, and Henry the First. More fortunate than many of the Norman prelates, he had the pleasure of nearly completing his own Church, as appears from the following passage in the Textus Roffensis, which was compiled by Bishop Ernulph before the year 1124. Ecclesiam Andrea pære vetustate dirutam, novam ex integro, ut hodie apparet, ædificavit." It seems, however, not to have been entirely finished till Ss 2 several

the British Museum, among the Cott. MS. A. x. 9. fol. 98. a. 6. The following is a translated abstract from that in the Regist. Roff: p. 6.

I, GUNDULPH, "do appoint, that every year, at the celebration of the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, there be reserved to me, and my successors, out of the estates which I have assigned for the maintenance of the Monks, such a Xenium as is here specified: that is to say, from Woldham, and from Frindsbury, and from Denton, and from Southfleet, and from Stoke, sixteen hogs cured for bacon, thirty geese, 300 fowls, 1000 lampreys, 1000 eggs, four salmon, and sixty bundles of furze; and from Stoke, sixteen seam, and one measure of oats :-but half the fish and eggs to be the Monks' portion :-and from Lamhea, (Lambeth,) 1000 lampreys, for the use of the Monks: also from Hadenham, twenty shillings-worth of fish, to be carried to their cellar. But if it should happen, contrary to my wishes, that I, or any of my successors, shall be absent from the feast, then, in God's name and my own, I order that the whole Xenium be carried to the Hall of St. Andrew, and there, at the discretion of the Prior and Brethren of the Church, be distributed to the strangers and poor, in honor of the festival." The claims of the Bishops to the Xenium, were afterwards contested by the Monks with much pertinacity; but the disputes were at length settled, by the former consenting to receive a composition in money, in lieu of the provisions in kind. This composition, as appears by some passages in the Regist. Ruff. p. 124, 125, amounted, in the time of Hamo de Hethe, to 4l. 12s. 9d. for all the articles, except corn, which was to be estimated according to the current price.

several years after his death, which occurred in March, 1107-8; as the solemn dedication of the whole structure did not take place till Ascension-day, 1130; when, according to the Saxon Chronicle, it was performed in the presence of the King, (Henry the First,) by Corboyl, Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by eleven English and two Norman Bishops. Gundulph is stated to have been Confessor to Matilda, Henry's Queen; and it has been thought that many of the gifts and privileges bestowed by her Royal partner on the Priory, (among which was the privilege of coining money,*) were obtained by her influence, exerted from the respect which she entertained for the memory of the pious Bishop.† The literary acquirements of Gundulph were not brilliant; but his skill and judgment as an architect, were of the most superior order; and he had the advantage of having them kept in full exercise. In the time of the Conqueror, he was employed to construct the White Tower in the Tower of London; and in the reigns of his successors, William Rufus, and Henry the First, he built the greatest part of the Cathedral and the Castle at Rochester; and founded a Nunnery for Benedictines at West-Malling, in this county, the buildings of which are also attributed to him. He was interred in his episcopal vestments, before the altar of the crucifix, which was always raised at the intersection of the cross which divided the nave from the choir.' His festival was celebrated by

the Monks with peculiar splendor.

Ralph, the immediate successor of Gundulph in this Bishopric, was translated to Canterbury in 1114; when Ernulph, a native of France, and Abbot of Peterborough, was advanced to the vacant See. This was the industrious compiler of the Textus Roffensis,§ a work that contains much valuable information on matters of antiquity, though its more immediate purport was to ascertain the rights

Registrum Roffense, p. 2. † Denne; in Custumale Roffense, p. 156. Denne; in Cust. Roff. P. 186.

See Pegge's Account of this venerable collection of ancient records, in the Bibliotheca Topographica, No. XV.

rights of the Church of Rochester. He also was distinguished by his knowledge in architecture; though but few remains of his buildings have reached our times. When a Monk at Canterbury, he begun the splendid alterations in the Cathedral Church of that city, which were afterwards completed by Prior Conrad: at Peterborough he finished the Chapter-house, and erected the Refectory, and Dormitory for the Monks: and at Rochester he built the Dormitory, the Refectory, and the Chapter-house. The ruins of the latter, which adjoined to the Cathedral on the south side, display a greater profusion of ornament than the buildings of Gundulph, though the style both of the architecture and sculpture is the same. Ernulph died in March, 1124, at the age of eighty-four; and was succeeded by John, Archdeacon of Canterbury, who granted the Churches of Frindsbury and Stroud to the Cathedral of Rochester, for the purpose of supplying wax tapers to burn continually before the altar. This Prelate died in June, 1137; on the third of which month, the Priory buildings were mostly destroyed by a fire, which partly consumed the City, and damaged the Cathedral. The Monks were dispersed in different Abbies, whilst the Monastery was re-building; and this appears to have given opportunity to John, a Norman Bishop, who had been translated to this See on the death of his predecessor, in 1137, (though his name is omitted by Godwin,) to alienate several of the Churches in favor of one of his own friends. Ascelin, who succeeded him in 1142, and died in 1147, vindicated the claims of the Monks, and obtained restitution of their possessions by an immediate order from the Papal See, he having travelled to Rome to state the circumstances of the case to the Pope in person. Walter, Archdeacon of Canterbury, and brother to Theobald, the Archbishop, was nominated to the vacant See, and was elected by the Monks of Rochester in the Chapter-house of Canterbury, where they had been assembled for the purpose. This Bishop assisted at the coronation of Henry, eldest son of Henry the Second, in 1170; for which he was afterwards excommunicated by Thomas á Becket. During his prelacy, another fire (anno 1179) is stated to have consumed the whole city, together with the Cathedral,