This cross was believed to perform miracles, an account of which is given by Dr. Stubbs in his edition of the tract "De Inventione S. Crucis Nostre de Waltham":1 one of which, it is stated, was performed upon Harold, the son of Earl Godwine, who, having been attacked by a stroke of palsy, was relieved entirely from it upon a visit to this cross; and Matthew of Westminster says, when Harold should go to the field against the Conqueror, he came to Waltham to do his devotion before the crucifix, which at his departure (in token of a final farewell) bowed itself towards him, and from thenceforth continued crooked even till his own time.

Tovi's foundation was for the maintenance of two priests only. On his death his son Athelstan lost Waltham, which came into the hands of Edward the Confessor, who bestowed it on Harold; who rebuilt the church and increased the number of secular priests to the mystic twelve of the company of the Apostles ; and his body was removed and buried in the church or neighbourhood after his death at the Battle of Hastings.

Harold endowed the church with seventeen manors, which, by the charter of confirmation granted by Edward the Confessor2 included the manors which Tovi had given. From the Life of Harold, it appears that William, the first Norman king of the English, took from the church the town of Waltham and gave it to Walter, Bishop of Durham, to repose himself at when he should be called to council out of the north country; and that he carried off the chief of the movable wealth which Harold had bestowed upon the church (a list of which is given) to Neustria in Normandy; but in the tract "De Inventione" this is attributed to King William Rufus. Their landed endowment was for the most part undisturbed. From the Domesday survey, it appears that their seventeen manors had been reduced to fifteen, and two of these, Meluho and Abrichesia in Bedfordshire, had passed to the Bishop of Durham as well as the town of Waltham. Howbeit, afterwards in part of amends, the town of

1 See, also, some interesting remarks on these miracles by Dr. Stubbs in his introduction to the " De Inventione”.

2 Vita Haroldi, ut supra.

Waltham, with all the lands thereto of old times appertaining, was restored to the church; and William Rufus, by charter (cir. 1096), confirmed to them the lands and customs they had then as in the times of his father.1

Other lands formerly held by the canons are mentioned in Domesday. They also appear to have been undertenants to Earl Mortaigne for a hide and a half in Waleton, in Surrey.2

Grants were made to the church by Hen. I and his Queen, Matilda: amongst which is an exchange of a mill in Waltham, given by Matilda, for the site of Christ church, or Holy Trinity, Aldgate. Adeliza, Hen. I's second wife, also gave to the canons the tithes of the parish and also of her demesnes.

In 1154 Hen. II confirmed to the church the possessions, customs and liberties which they held in the times of Henry his grandfather (Hen. I).3

Waltham continued a college according to Harold's foundation for about 115 years: from 1062 to 1177. About 1160 we find Wido, or Gwido, Ruffus dean. In 1164 he was one of Hen. II's ambassadors to the Pope at Sens. Gervase says he was in the same year one of the envoys sent by Henry to Lewis, King of France, to prejudice him against Thomas, the Archbishop who had threatened to excommunicate him. In 1174 Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, came to Waltham and suspended him in his absence without a hearing." He had been impeached on several serious charges, and probably thought it best to keep out of the way. Two years later he asked leave to resign the deanery, and subsequently allowed the King to use him as an instrument in the change he proposed to effect at Waltham,' which he carried out in 1177 by the institution of regular canons in the room of the seculars; the reason given for the change being that the secular clerks who had remained

1 Cotton. MS., Tiberius C. IX, fo. 49A, et Cart. Antiq., M. No. 1. Kemble, Cod. Dipl., 813.

2 "De Inventione", etc., Stubbs' ed.

3 Stubbs' ed. "De Inventione".

5 id., 583.

4 Diceto, 537.

6 id., 598; Gerv., 1434; Bromton, 1118.

7 Stubbs' introduction to "De Inventione".

in the same place hitherto were intent on worldly works and unlawful allurements, rather than on divine service.

There is some confusion among the old chroniclers as to the events which occurred on this change in the constitution of the church of Waltham. Dugdale says Gwido not only was suspended, but resigned his deanery in 1174. This, as we shall presently see, was not the case; but Hovenden and Matthew Paris (embodying Roger of Wendover) each give only a partial account of the proceedings. Hovenden says Gwido the Dean resigned his deanery, and the canons secular their prebends, at the General Council of Northampton held after the Feast of St. Hilary, 1177, and that Walter de Gant was appointed abbot on the Vigil of the Pentecost, anno 1177. Leland, in his Collectanea, follows Hovenden and Browne-Willis in his view of the mitred abbots which forms Part 2 of the Appendix to the Collectanea, adopts the same view; Matthew Paris and Roger Wendover, on the other hand, say nothing about the appointment of an abbot, but that Ralph, canon of Chichester,1 received the government of the church from the hands of the Bishop of London, to whom, as his diocesan, he bound himself in express words to pay canonical obedience; after which he was introduced into the church in company with the brethren, appointed by the bishop to be their prior, and solemnly enthroned.

A solution of these contradictions may be found in the chronicle of Benedict of Peterborough, forming the Cottonian MS. Vitellius, E. xviii, under the title of "Gesta Hen. II et Ric. I, Benedictus", which covers the period from A.D. 1169 to A.D. 1192;2 an edition of which by Dr. Stubbs forms one of the publications of the Rolls Series of documents.

From this we learn that at the Council of Northampton, held after the Feast of St. Hilary, January 13th, 1177, Gwido surrendered his deanery into the hands of the King, which he was very desirous to have, for he had vowed to God and the blessed St. Thomas of Canterbury the Martyr, in honour of his martyrdom, he would found 1 Cirencester; Diceto says Radulphus Cirecestrensis, vol. i, p. 420, Stubbs' ed. 2 Benedict died A.D. 1193.

an abbey of regular canons in remission of his sins; and from Hugo the Cardinal and legate he had obtained that in the said church of Waltham, the secular canons being removed, he should be at liberty to appoint regular canons; and for this cause above all, the King had striven to have the church of Waltham free and unrestrained in his hands for the accomplishment of his purpose.

But in the octave of St. Hilary the King came to Windsor, and thence sent Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops of Ely and London, to Waltham, where the said dean resigned into their hands his deanery of Waltham; and they gave instructions on the part of the King to the secular canons, who were to go there to the King to receive exchange for their prebends.

And on the Vigil of Pentecost the King came to Waltham, and met there Walter, Bishop of Rochester (sent on behalf of Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury), and the bishops of London, Norwich and Durham; and on the same day, viz., on the 3rd Ide of June [June 11] and Feast of St. Barnabas the Apostle, the aforesaid bishops, by the precept of the King and the mandate of the Pope Alexander, and the consent of the Archbishop, inducted into the church of the Holy Cross of Waltham regular canons whom the King had elected from houses of regular canons of his realm, scil.: six canons of the Abbey of Cirencester, six of the church of Osney, and four of St. Osith; and the King appointed one prior of the same canons and other officers of the same house.

At this induction and ordination Gwido the late dean was present, to whom the King gave a manor during his life in exchange for his deanery, and to the secular canons, who were also present, the value of their prebends—at least to such as resigned, for some refused—

1 Gervase says 66 quatuor de Chick". Chick was another name for this monastery, which was founded by Richard, Bishop of London, in the reign of Hen. I, in honour of Osith, daughter of King Fritwald and queen of Sighere, King of the East Saxons, who was martyred by the Danes A.D. 635. See further Brit. Arch. Journ., vol. xvi, p. 347, and id., vol. xxiii, p. 328, where it is said she founded the monastery, and was beheaded A.D. 870.

to whom he granted free liberty to enjoy their prebends during their lives, after to revert to the regulars; and the King promised to augment their revenues, that they should be sufficient to maintain eighty or a hundred canons,1 which Polydore Vergil saith he did not perform, but Hollinshed says he but slenderly performed.

Henry II having thus settled his regular canons in the church of Waltham, dedicated at first to the Holy Cross and afterwards to St. Lawrence, confirmed the Confessor's charter with many parcels of land and tenements which pious benefactors had afterwards bestowed, and gave them the rich manors of Sewardston and Epping.2

This charter, taken from the Registry of Waltham, forms the Cottonian MS., Tiberius C. IX, fo. 526. It gives, as a reason for the change from secular to regular canons, that the secular canons had lived irreligiously and carnally, and had caused much scandal. Whether

this was more than an excuse may be a question; but it is clear that the opposition to the secular clergy, who were not bound by the vow of celibacy, which had commenced under Dunstan in King Edgar's reign, had gathered strength with the increased power of the church under Anselm and Thomas A'Becket, and the growth of the monastic orders.

This charter also recites that the church of Waltham had from its first foundation been subject to no archiepiscopal or episcopal jurisdiction, but was only subject to the Church of Rome and the jurisdiction of the King.

Then, in July 1184, the King came to the Abbey of Waltham, and Walter de Gant, canon of Oseney, was constituted the first abbot of the regular canons.

Dr. Stubbs, in a note to his edition of Benedict's Chronicle, says this is an important date in the history of Waltham. In 1177 the secular canons were expelled, and the regular canons, under a prior named Ralph, were instituted. But, if our author is right, it was not until 1184 that the priory was elevated into an abbey, and the 1 Gesta Hen. I, Benedictus, vol. i, p. 174. 2 Dugd. Monast.