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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
By the permission of Mr. Godbold of Bury in Suffolk, I am now enabled to lay before the Society some curious Antiquities, dug up from amongst the ruins of the ancient Abbey, at that place. These ruins being in the grounds belonging to the house wherein Mr. Godbold lives, he with great care, and much trouble, traced the foundations of the building, in such a manner, as to bring to light the true and original plan of that ancient structure, an account whereof I some time ago communicated to the Society [a]: and carrying on his researches still further, he found these remains of antiquity now to be described; two of which were taken out of the Crypt, or Under-croft; and the other from under the ancient floor, or pavement, of the Great Isle of the Church; and the latter, being the most curious, I shall endeavour to give some account of in the first place.
page 119 note [a] Inserted in vol. III. p. 311.
page 120 note [b] Compare the seal of Louis le Jeune, king of France, contemporary with our Stephen, Montf. Mon. de la Mon. Fr. pl. 67. Earl William of Flander's tomb. 1127 and the seal of Earl Philip 1164, 1179. in Vredii Sigilla Com. Flandriæ, pl. 9 and 11. R. G.
page 121 note [c] What is shewn for Henry the Fifth's saddle in the chapel over his monument at Westminster has the same. R. G.
page 121 note [d] On the German seals, the single-pointed spur obtained during the 13th and towards the close of the 12th century. Heinecc. Syntagma de Sigillis, p. 203. & auctores ibi citati. R. G.
page 122 note [e] The tomb stone of Gundreda, the wife of William de Warren earl of Surrey, who was daughter to William the Conqueror (which has lately been discovered), has an inscription in letters greatly resembling those on the seal here described. She died at Castleacre in Norfolk 1085, and was buried at Lewes in Sussex.
page 122 note [f] The Roman letters changed on the seals of the Earls of Flanders about the beginning of the 13th century. See Vredius pl. 15; in France about the middle of the 12th, under Louis le Jeune and Philip Augustus. See Montf. pl. 67. 69. R. G.
page 123 note [g] There were in all seven Earls of Chester, from the time of the Conquest, to the Union of the County Palatine with the crown.
1 Hugh died 1103.
2 Richard died 1119.
3 Ranulph died 1129.
4 Ranulph died 1156.
5 Hugh died 1180.
6 Ranulph died 1232.
7 John died 1294.
page 126 note [h] Lord Lyttelton gives several proofs of the horrid perjuries of those times; and mentions one most astonishing instance of premeditated perjury, committed avowedly, in the reign of Henry II. by the famous archbishop Becket, who seems not to have thought it a matter of any great reproach. This prelate, previous to his giving his assent to the constitutions of Clarendon, told the rest of the bishops then assembled, It is my master's pleasure that I should forswear myself, and at present I submit to it, and do resolve to incur a perjury, and repent afterwards as I may; and accordingly he went to the King and barons assembled in parliament, and swore, in the word of truth, that he would observe those constitutions, in good faith and without deceit. But he soon kept his word, in being guilty of perjury, and paying no regard to this oath. See Lord Lyttelton's Life of Henry II. vol. ii. p. 356. and the strange evasions that some great men have thought of to avoid the obligations of their oaths, in barbarous ages, are no less remarkable, than the perjuries themselves. Henault tells us, that Robert king of France, who lived about 1026, in order to prevent his subjects from being perjured, on occasion of taking a certain oath, caused them to swear on a shrine, out of which the relicks had been carefully taken. And the same author informs us, that (even so late as 1483) Lewis the Eleventh took care never to swear by the cross of St. Lo. because it was the general opinion of those times, that those who perjured themselves, after swearing by that cross, died within the year. Abrégé de l'Histoire de France, vol. i. p. 142. 389.