網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

In

year died Wulfhere, and Ethelred succeeded to the government. his time sent he to Rome Bishop Wilfrid to the pope, that then was, called Agatho, and told him by word and by letter, how his brothers, Peada and Wulfhere, and the Abbot Saxulf, had wrought a minster, called Medhamsted; and that they had freed it, against king and against bishop, from every service; and he besought him, that he would confirm it with his writ and with his blessing. And the pope sent then his writ to England, thus saying: 'I, Agatho, Pope of Rome, greet well the worthy Ethelred, King of the Mercians, and the Archbishop Theodorus of Canterbury, and Saxulf, the Bishop of the Mer cians, who before was abbot, and all the abbots that are in England; God's greeting and my blessing. I have heard the petition of King Ethelred, and of the Archbishop Theodorus, and of the Bishop Saxulf, and of the Abbot Cuthbald; and I will it, that it in all wise be as you have spoken it. And I ordain, in behalf of God, and of St. Peter, and of all saints, and of every hooded head, that neither king, nor bishop, nor earl, nor any man whatever, have any claim, or gable, or gild, or levy, or take any service of any kind from the Abbey of Medhamsted. I command also, that no shire bishop be so bold as to hold an ordination or consecration within this abbacy, except the abbot intreat him, nor have there any claim to proxies, or synodals, or any thing whatever of any kind. And I will, that the abbot be holden for legate of Rome over all that island; and whatever abbot is there chosen by the monks, that he be consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury. I will and decree, that whatever man may have made a vow to go to Rome, and cannot perform it, either from infirmity, or for his Lord's need, or from poverty, or from any other necessity of any kind whatever, whereby he cannot come thither, be he of England, or of whatever other island he be, he may come to that Minster of Medhamsted, and have the same forgiveness of Christ and St. Peter, and of the abbot, and of the monks, that he should have if he went to Rome. Now bid I thee, brother Theodorus, that thou let it be proclaimed through all England, that a synod be gathered, and this writ be read and observed. Also I tell thee, Bishop Saxulf, that as thou desirest it, that the minster be free, so I forbid thee, and all the bishops that after thee come, from Christ and from all his saints, that ye have no demand from that minster, except so much as the abbot will. Now will I say in a word, that whoso holdeth this writ and this decree, then be he ever dwelling with God Almighty in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso breaketh it, then be he excommunicated, and thrust down with Judas, and with all the devils in hell, except he come to repentance. Amen!'-This writ sent the Pope Agatho, and a hundred and twenty-five bishops, by Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, to England. This was done after our Lord's nativity, 680, the sixth year of King Ethelred. Then the king commanded the Archbishop Theodorus, that he should appoint a General Wittenmoot at the place called Hatfield. When they were there collected, then he allowed the letter to be read that the pope sent thither; and all ratified and confirmed it. Then said the king: 'All things that my brother Peada, and my brother Wulfhere, and my sisters Kyneburga and Kyneswitha, gave and granted to St. Peter and

the abbot, these I will may stand; and I will in my day increase it, for their souls and for my soul. Now give I St. Peter to-day into his minster, Medhamsted, these lands, and all that thereto lyeth; that is, Bredon, Repings, Cadney, Swineshead, Hanbury, Lodeshall, Scuffanhall, Cosford, Stratford, Wattleburn, Lushgard, Ethelhun-island, Bardney. These lands I give St. Peter just as freely as I possessed them myself; and so, that none of my successors take any thing therefrom. Whoso doeth it, have he the curse of the Pope of Rome, and the curse of all bishops, and of all those that are witnesses here. And this I confirm with the token of Christ.'

Then follow the attestations of the bishops, &c. present at the ceremony, the confirmation of Ostritha, Ethelred's queen, with the curses of the abbot, &c. against all who infringe the holy charter.

In like arrogant manner, under date 694, does another Norman interpolation, in the name of "Wihtred, earthly king, urged on by the heavenly king, and with the spirit of righteousness annealed,"-" forbid all succeeding kings, and aldermen, and all laymen, ever, any lordship over churches, and over all their appurtenances," and dispose of, and divide all power and prerogative between kings and bishops. "Kings," says the interpolator," shall appoint earls and aldermen, sheriffs and judges; but the archbishop shall consult and provide for God's flock; bishops, and abbots, and abbesses, and priests, and deacons, he shall choose and appoint." It is apparent, however, that during the Saxon epoch, some part of the prerogative thus trafficked by the Norman ecclesiastic so absolutely to the king, was asserted and exercised by the people-even after the consolidation of the power of the crown by the union of the entire Heptarchy under one head, and the innovations which had been partially introduced by Danish usurpation, and by Norman intercourse and alliance.

“A.D. 1055. This year died Earl Siward, at York; and his body lies within the minster at Galmanho, (Bootham-bar,) which he had himself ordered to be built and consecrated, in the name of God and St. Olave, to the honour of God and all his saints." [His own son, Osburn, and his sister's son, Sihward, had been slain the year before in Scotland, in the battle against Macbeth; and the earldom, it seems, had become vacant.] "The king (Edward the Confessor) gave the earldom, which Earl Siward formerly had, to Tostige, son of Earl Godwin," [i. e. the brother of that Harold, afterwards slain at the battle of Hastings.] This appointment by royal authority, however, seems never to have been quietly recognised by the district; and "A.D. 1065, all the Thanes in Yorkshire and in Northumberland gathered themselves together at York, and outlawed their Earl Tostige, slaying all the men of his clan that they could reach, both Danish and English, and took all his weapons in York, with gold and silver, and all the money that

they could any where there find. They then sent after Morkar, son of Earl Elgar, [between whom and Harold there had long been a factious rivalry, that had harassed the country with the ravages of civil war,] and chose him for their earl. He went south with all the shire, and with Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire, and Lincolnshire, till he came to Northampton, where his brother Edwin came to meet him with the men that were in his earldom. Many Britons also came with them. Harold also there met them, on whom they imposed an errand to King Edward, sending also messengers with him, and demanding that they might have Morcar for their earl." [Badon that hi moston habban Morkere heomto Eorle,-bidding that they must have, &c.] "This the king granted, and sent back Harold to them, to Northampton, on the eve of St. Simon and St. Jude, and announced to them the same, and confirmed it by hand, and renewed there the laws of Knute."

"Then Earl Tostige and his wife, and all they who acted with them, went south over sea with him to Earl Baldwin, who received them all; and they were there all the winter."

One more extract from the genuine Chronicle, and we have done with the Saxon clergy.

"A.D. 1056. The worthy Bishop Athelstan died on the 4th before the ides of February, and his body lies at Hereford. [In his new church which he had built from the foundation.] To him succeeded Leofgar, who was Earl Harold's mass priest. He wore his knapsack in his priesthood, until he was a bishop. He abandoned his chrism and his rood, his ghostly weapons,-and took to his spear and his sword, after his bishophood, and so marched to the field against Griffin, the Welsh king. But he was there slain, and his priests with him, and Elnoth, the sheriff, and many other good men with them."

This, as the translator observes, was no uncommon thing among the Saxon clergy, bishops, and all. The tone of elevated diction, in which the writer (a monastic) describes the military enterprise of Leofgar and his companions, testifies his admiration. The Latin historians [Norman monks] have omitted most of these interesting particulars; but Matthew of Westminster eulogises the bishop as a lover of the clergy, a sustainer of the poor, the defender of widows and orphans, the upholder of the oppressed, and a pattern of saintly chastity; no faint commendation for one who was at once a priest and a soldier. Wulfstan, however, Archbishop of York in 948, &c. the perpetual fomenter and joint leader of the troubles, perjuries, and insurrections, in Northumbria, during the time of Edward the Elder, and some other of the martial bishops and clergy of that and succeeding ages, will scarcely be considered as entitled to equal praise. We turn back, however, to the period of the Heptarchy

for one interesting extract, (not ill adapted, perhaps, for dramatic effect,) which will place in a conspicuous point of view not only the turbulent spirit of the times, but the lax principle of regal tenure and succession to which we have previously alluded. And it is the more particularly entitled to distinguished notice, not only because "the minuteness of the narrative, combined with the simplicity of it, proves that it was written at no great distance of time from the event;" but because it is the first narration of any length that occurs in the older MSS. of the Saxon Chronicle."

[ocr errors]

"A.D. 755. This year Cynewulf, with the consent of the West-Saxon council, deprived Sebright, his relative, for unrighteous deeds, of his kingdom, except Hampshire; which he retained, until he slew the alderman who remained the longest with him. Then Cynewulf drove him to the forest of Andred, where he remained, until a swain stabbed him at Privett, and revenged the Alderman Cumbra. The same Cynewulf fought many hard battles with the Welsh; and, about one and thirty winters after he had the kingdom, he was desirous of expelling a prince called Cyneard, who was the brother of Sebright. But he having understood that the king was gone, thinly attended, on a visit to a lady at Merton, rode after him, and beset him therein; surrounding the town without, ere the attendants of the king were aware of him. When the king found this, he went out of doors, and defended himself with courage; till, having looked on the etheling, he rushed out upon him, and wounded him severely. Then were they all fighting against the king, until they had slain him. As soon as the king's thanes in the lady's bower heard the tumult, they ran to the spot, whoever was then ready. The etheling immediately offered them life and rewards; which none of them would accept, but continued fighting together against him till they all lay dead, except one British hostage, and he was severely wounded. When the king's thanes that were behind heard in the morning that the king was slain, they rode to the spot, Osric, his alderman, and Wiverth, his thane, and the men that he had left behind; and they met the etheling at the town where the king lay slain. The gates, however, were locked against them, which they attempted to force ; but he promised them their own choice of money and land, if they would grant him the kingdom; reminding them, that their relatives were already with him, who would never desert him. To which they answered, that no relative could be dearer to them than their lord, and that they would never follow his murderer. Then they besought their relatives to depart from him safe and sound. They replied, that the same request was made to their comrades that were formerly with the king, and we are as regardless of the result, they rejoined, as our comrades who with the king were slain. Then they continued fighting at the gates, till they rushed in, and slew the etheling and all the men that were with him; except one, who was the godson of the alderman,

and whose life they spared, though he was often wounded. This same Cynewulf reigned one and thirty winters. His body lies at Winchester, and that of the etheling at Axminster. Their paternal pedigree goeth into a direct line to Čerdic."

But the subject connected with the Saxon Heptarchy, which historical criticism is perhaps most called upon to elucidate, is that of the accession of Egbert to the throne of Wessex, and the real extent of that supremacy or influence which he ultimately obtained over the other kingdoms. Our popular historians have, without exception, agreed to consider him as having put a final end to the federal government (if federal it may be called) of the Anglo-Saxons, and to have permanently united the states of the Heptarchy into one consolidated kingdom; and some of them have even amused us with a pompous romance of his coronation at Winchester, as king of all England. Nothing, however, can be more certain, than that no such title was ever accorded to, or assumed by him, in any public act, of which there is any document remaining. Nor was any such power of united domination bequeathed by him to his posterity, or enjoyed by that posterity during the three successive generations.

Alfred the Great, in his will, still extant, calls himself, and in the introduction to his laws is stiled, not King of England (and of England most assuredly he never was king), but King of the West Saxons: nor does the title ever appear to have been assumed, or virtually to have belonged to any Saxon sovereign, prior to the great Athelstan, the illegitimate grandson of that illustrious hero and legislator.

With respect to Egbert, the notices in the Chronicle are, as usual, brief and detached, but they are such as, together with the few to the same purpose that occur in the succeeding reigns, will not only place this subject in the clearest point of view, but throw an instructive light upon occurrences of higher antiquity, which are worthy of more notice than has been yet bestowed upon them.

[ocr errors]

Egbert, as it is well known, ascended the throne of Wes sex in the year 800, upon the death of his jealous predecessor, Beorhtric the mention of whose forthferde (departure the usual phrase, on such occasions, of our barbarous ancestors!) is preceded, as usual, by omens and portents of the sky.

The first notice of his accumulation of power over the other states is as follows.

"A. D. 823. This year a battle was fought between the Welsh in Cornwall and the people of Devonshire, a Camelford; and in the course of the same year, Egbert, King of the West Saxons, and

« 上一頁繼續 »