The Church of Worcester from the Eighth to the Twelfth Century, Part II

Ivor Atkins

doi:10.1017/S0003581500009689

The Church of Worcester from the Eighth to the Twelfth Century, Part II

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2012

Ivor Atkins

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Throughout his episcopate Wulstan maintained intimate relations with the monastery, and the evidence of his charters makes it clear that he surrounded himself with his monks. The Alveston and Tapenhall charters of 1089, and the Westbury of 1093, for example, include amongst the officials of the bishop, Ailric his archdeacon, Colman his chancellor, Fretheric his chaplain, Maurice and Frewen his clerks, Ailwin and Ordricus his stewards, and, in an unnamed capacity, Ailwin the priest. All these we can identify from various records as members of the monastic household. We shall see later that their names occur in a list of monks of the Worcester house which is found in the Durham Liber Vitae, and dates about the beginning of the twelfth century.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , April 1940 , pp. 203 - 229

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581500009689 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1940

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^{page 203 note 1} We learn from Hemming (pp. 261 and 263) that Brihtmar in later life entered the Worcester house as a monk and that another of his sons, one of two Edwins found in Worcester lists of monks, was also a monk in that monastery.

^{page 204 note 1} Unless Godric þirl is a mistake of the copyist for Godric(de) piria, who figures in the agreement between Worc. and Evesham c. 1086.

^{page 204 note 2} Vita Wulfstani 6 k. ii, 7.

^{page 204 note 3} V.C.H. Worc. i, 291 b.

^{page 204 note 4} The original was still amongst Worcester documents when Wharton visited Worcester about 1690. There is another version in Worc. Reg. I, f. 7.

^{page 206 note 1} In the time of Domesday Evesham monastery held as many as twenty-eight dwellings in Worcester.

^{page 207 note 1} I. 15. The Life of St. Wulstan, translated by Peile, J. H. F. (Oxford 1934), pp. 31–3Google Scholar.

^{page 207 note 2} Gesta Pontificum, p. 290.

^{page 208 note 1} Gilbert Crispin Abbot of Westminster, pp. 31–2.

^{page 208 note 2} Hemming, 403—8.

^{page 208 note 3} Anglia Sacra, i, 541. Wharton attributed the Life to Hemming.

^{page 208 note 4} Thesaurus, i, 175–6.

^{page 208 note 5} Ibid. 144.

^{page 209 note 1} Hemming, i, 79–80. The document has been reproduced in full in J. H. Round's Feudal England.

^{page 210 note 1} Hemming, ii, 427–9.

^{page 211 note 1} Serlo was living in the time of Bishop Simon (1125–50) (Thomas, Survey, Appendix, p. 7).

^{page 212 note 1} Cotton Domitian A. vii. The Liber Vitae has been reproduced in facsimile (Surtees Soc., vol. cxxxvi).

^{page 212 note 2} The Evesham and Worcester names are found on ff. 21 b and 22 a.

^{page 212 note 3} Clarendon Press, 1916, pp. lii–liv.

^{page 213 note 1} Symeon of Durham (R.S.), i, 108–10. Hovenden describes all three as Evesham monks.

^{page 214 note 1} Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham, Introd. xliii.

^{page 214 note 2} Æthelwig administered Winchcombe for two periods between c. 1069 and 1077. The first appears to have extended from c. 1069 to c. 1074, when Galandus, who is known to have been present as abbot of Winchcombe at a Council in 1075 (Wilkins, Concilia), was probably appointed. It seems unlikely that Æthelwig would have allowed Aldwin to leave Winchcombe unless the new abbot had already been installed. Galandus held the abbacy for only a short time. At his death Æthelwig entered upon his second period of government. This seems to have lasted until his death in 1077.

^{page 215 note 1} Liber Vitae, folio 42.

^{page 216 note 1} See ante, p. 35.

^{page 216 note 2} Formerly abbot of Winchcombe. After being deposed by the Conqueror Godric was at first imprisoned at Gloucester. Later the king placed him at Evesham in the care of Abbot Æthelwig.

Names marked * occur also in the Durham page of Evesham monks.

^{page 217 note 1} Maurice, an Evesham monk, succeeded Abbot Robert of Jumièges. It is not known when the latter died. Nor is it known when Abbot Maurice's rule came to an end.

^{page 217 note 2} Like Maurice, whom he appears to have succeeded, Robert was an Evesham monk. He was succeeded in 1130 by Abbot Reginald, a monk of Gloucester. See Appendix viii.

^{page 217 note 3} Ev. Chr. 44, 86.

^{page 217 note 4} Prior in 1125 (Chr. of John of Worcester, sub anno). See also Ev. Chr. 371. Richard was prior c. 1145. Cf. Hist. et Cart. Glouc. ii, 114.

^{page 217 note 5} Ev. Chr. 394.

^{page 217 note 6} e.g. Baldwin, Walter, Ælured, and Nicholas, whose names occur with that of Dominic the prior in a deed of the time of Abbot Reginald (1130–44), Vesp. B. XXIV, fol. 5 b.

^{page 217 note 7} Dr. Alf. Krarũp, Librarian of the University of Copenhagen, in a letter to the writer.

^{page 218 note 1} Macray, Chron. Abb. de Evesham, Introduction, xliv, note: ‘Fuerunt 67 inonachi et ex his fuerunt 12 in Denemarchia, quos rex Willielmus Juvenis illuc transmisit.’ The note gives details of the constitution of the domestic household.

^{page 219 note 1} Op. cit., p. liv.

^{page 220 note 1} For the whole note see W. H. Stevenson, Report on the Manuscripts of Lord Middleton, pp. xi, 196, and 611; and Turner, Early Worcester MSS., pp. xxviii, xxix, xli, and xlii.

^{page 220 note 2} The leaves are now preserved in the British Museum, as is also another leaf from the same Bible which was presented by Canon Greenwell of Durham.

^{page 221 note 1} Op. cit., p. 196.

^{page 221 note 2} Hemming, pp. 95, 319.

^{page 221 note 3} Turner, op. cit., p. xlvii. The passage begins: ‘Tandem reuoluens bibliotecam quam Romae conscriptam beatae memoriae rex Offa ecclesiae nostrae contulisse dicitur….’

^{page 221 note 4} Hemming, i, 285.

^{page 222 note 1} Malvern Priory was dedicated to St. Mary and St. Michael.

^{page 222 note 2} Wife of Urse d'Abitot, sheriff of Worcester.

^{page 224 note 1} If the following charter was executed during the vacancy of the See, as seems probable, it must date between the death of Bp. Samson in May 1112 and that of Archbp. Thomas in Feb. 1114. The original was formerly in the collection of the Hon. Henry Portman, Buxted Park, Sussex, and was by him presented to the Dean and Chapter of Worcester.

^{page 225 note 1} in the original.

^{page 225 note 2} I am indebted to Dr. Francis Wormald of the British Museum for deciphering this document for me. He writes: ‘There may be another name before the last-named, probably Hugo; in which case the witnesses will end with Hugo and Frederic, chaplains of Wilton.’

^{page 227 note 1} I am indebted for this translation to the Rev. C. Eveleigh Woodruff and Mr. Alec Macdonald, M.A., King's School, Worcester.

^{page 228 note 1} Gloucester monastery, of which Reginald had been a monk, had received its Benedictine life from Worcester.

^{page 229 note 1} For Robert see also Vespasian B. xxiv, f. 22b.

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