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-Dr. Powell, that this William put in for the bishopric of St. Asaph upon the death of the said Geoffrey, and being disappointed, fell into a mad humour of decrying the whole principality of Wales, its history, antiquity, and all that belongs to it.' But without determining how far the disappointed hope of preferment urged his attack upon the British worthies, it appears doubtful whether he was fully qualified to pronounce his stern anathema. His acquaintance with the work of Gildas was the result of accident, not of research. The book was very rare; the style of the British author was so rude and insipid that few persons cared to keep the composition in their libraries, or to bestow on it the labour of transcription. British antiquities being thus neglected, the English writer could not easily obtain the information which was necessary to enable him to pronounce on the textual authenticity of a British history.

*

Geoffrey's History may be divided into three distinct portions -the succession of the British kings from Brutus to Vortigern— the wars with the Saxons, and the adventures of Arthur-and the events from the reign of Arthur until the death of Cadwallader, the Saxon Ceadwall, who is claimed by the Britons as a British King.-Geoffrey, though guilty of many gross anachronisms, -affords a plausible if not a convincing mode of reconciling the conflicting statements. Ceadwalla, or Cadwallader, the son of Cadwallon, was descended, by the mother's side, from the Kings of Wessex, and he united in himself the rights of two hostile races.* In the Saxon authorities, there is a remarkable obscurity about the early history of Ceadwalla. He acquired his kingdom by force, and the details of his actions seem to be studiously avoided. Nor is the British origin of Ceadwalla disproved by the genealogy given in the Saxon chronicle. The Saxon genealogies are deduced through males only, omitting any intermediate descent of females; no female name ever appears in them; and, according to their genealogic phraseology, which is expressed only by patronymics, Ceadwalla might be truly called the descendant of Coenbyrht, though two generations of females were interposed.+ Great obscurity prevails respecting the mode and manner of the English conquests of the British territory; and we may suspect that the progress of the Anglo-Saxon dominion was facilitated by alliances with the British sovereigns, for we cannot otherwise explain the

Mater ejus fuerat soror Pendæ, patre tantum: Matre vero diversa ei nobili genere Gewisseorum edita fuerat. Galf. Mon. lib. ix. c. 6.

Ceadwalla was Coenbyrhting; Coenby rht Ceadding; Ceada Cupaing; Cupa Ceawnling; Ceawlin Cynricing; Cynric Cerdicing-Sax. Chron. p. 55. Florence omits the genealogy, and calls him, Ceadwalla juvenis strenuissimus de regio genere Gewissoram, following Bede, who employs the same expressions.

appearance

appearance of British names in the family of Penda the Mercian sovereign.

It has not been remarked that Geoffrey, besides preserving the British fables, contributes his share of English romance. Nennius. relates the loves of Vortigern and the fair deluder: but Geoffrey is the first writer who records the name of Ronix; nor is there any other chronicler who notices the well known salutation of the maiden- Liever King Wacht heil,'-the origin of the joyous Wassail cup. From whence did Geoffrey derive this incident? The tale bears the character of poetry; it might be suspected that his authority is some Anglo-Saxon ballad. But Nennius, though less diffuse, has equally the outlines of the story.

There is, perhaps, no English author who appears at first with greater claims of authenticity than INGULPHUS, the venerable abbot of Croyland. Il avoit tout vu, en bon connoisseur,' say the learned editors of the French historians, et ce qu'il rapporte il l'écrit en homme lettré, judicieux et vrai.' He does not veil himself in the uncertainty of anonymous composition; but, addressing the reader in his proper person, he relates the fortunes of his house, adducing the best authorities. His materials are collected from the monastic archives. And whilst these facts were transmitted to him from his predecessors, he indites his own memoirs with every appearance of candour and sincerity. From the foundation of the monastery in 616 to the 34th year of Edgar, he abridges or transcribes the monastic chronicle which was compiled under the direction and authority of Abbot Turketul-of whom more hereafter-by Brother Sweetman, from the relation of the oldest members of the monastery. Abbot Egelric the younger, the kinsman of Turketul, composed the life of that abbot, which constitutes the most important episode in the history of the monastery; and Ingulphus himself continued the work from thence to his own time.

Let us now briefly analyze these component portions; and, first, with every possible respect for Brother Sweetman's care and industry, it must be recollected that he depended principally upon oral information. Croyland had been entirely subverted by the Danes in the year 870. After profaning the relics and rifling the tombs of saints and kings, the robbers burnt the 'immense library. of sacred volumes; innumerable charters shared the same fate, and the buildings were reduced to a heap of ruins. Nothing was saved except some articles of value, and the charters of Ethelbald, and the confirmations by subsequent kings, which the monks bore away with them in their flight. The few members of the monastery, who returned to their old home, constructed an humble

* Ingulph: 22, 23.

VOL. XXXIV. NO. LXVII.

T

oratory

*

oratory amidst the fire-scathed walls of the church; but Beorred, King of Mercia, seized their lands, some of which he retained, and others he granted to his knights; and, until the restoration of the abbey under Egbert, the community struggled for existence in a state of the greatest poverty and depression. The new foundation was effected by the exertions and piety of Abbot Turketul in 966; and in the last years of his life (his death happened in 975) he directed the history to be compiled by Brother Sweetman from the testimony of the five sempecte who had witnessed the destruction and rejoiced at the restoration of the monastery.+ Clarembaldus, the oldest of these patriarchs, attained the age of one hundred and sixty-eight years. Swarlingus died in 974, ' aged one hundred and forty-two years.' And in the same year died Brunne and Aio; their exact ages are not recorded, but Aio was 'learned in the law,' and had been well acquainted with the charters of the ancient monastery: assuming, therefore, that his legal education could not have been perfected before his majority, the salubrious air of the fens must have prolonged his life at least to the age of one hundred and twenty-five years. Last and least, died Father Thurgar, who, a child ten years of age 'when he was rescued from the Danish murderers, was only one hundred and fifteen years old when he died in the fifteenth of King Edgar. All the facts were thus derived from the information which the five venerable elders afforded to their secretary. And although the extraordinary prolongation of the lives of five contemporary members of one small community is not ascribed to the intercession of St. Guthlac, yet it is difficult, without a miracle, to believe in longevity so much exceeding the average duration of sublunary existence.

Turketul, the son of Ethelward or Ailward, the youngest child of Alfred, was born, as Ingulphus relates, in the year 907.§ On the death of his father, he obtained livery of his inheritance from King Edward his uncle, who used every endeavour to persuade him to select a wife from the noble and youthful beauties of the kingdom. But Turketul would not be seduced by their charms; he had resolved upon celibacy, and Edward, prudently yielding to his pious inclinations, allowed him to take holy orders, and repeatedly offered to him the most splendid preferment. Turketul disclaimed the mitre with as much constancy as he had refused a consort. is mentioned in particular that the Bishopric of Winchester, proffered on the death of Dinewulph, was strenuously rejected. Plegmund, archbishop of Canterbury, then instantly suggested that the Bishopric of Dorchester should be bestowed upon the reluc

+ Ingulph. 48.

Ingulph. 51.

* Ingulph. 25.
He died in the year 975, aged sixty-eight years. Ingulph. 51, 52.

It

tant

tant Turketul, but he continued his denial with unabated pertinacity. The King was now thoroughly convinced that Turketul was sincere in contemning all worldly riches and vanities; and, as a reward for his disinterestedness, appointed him to the office of Chancellor, an office, it seems, equivalent to that of prime-minister. All the temporal and spiritual affairs of the Kingdom were guided by the advice and counsel of this high officer, and the first act of the administration of Turketul was to advise the selection of seven Bishops to fill the seven vacant sees of Wessex and Mercia. Frithestane, the foster-brother of Turketul, and Ceolwulph, his chaplain or clerk, respectively obtained the sees of Winchester and Dorchester; and Werstan, Athelstan, Athelm, Adulph, and Bernek, were respectively assigned to the dioceses of Sherborne, Cornwall, Wells, Crediton, and Selsea.*

A much fuller account of this election of the seven Bishops may be found in Malmesbury and Florilegus. By them no mention is made of Turketul, in their narrative of the transaction, neither could he well be introduced in it, as the date of the synod or council itself in which the Bishoprics were conferred is 905, just two years before Turketul was born.† There are such difficulties in the history of the promotion of the seven Bishops, as to throw great doubt on the narrative altogether. Ingulphus therefore merely engrafts an impossibility upon an improbability. But the Saxon Chronicle places the death of Dinewulf in 909, and the succession of Frithestane in 910, and these dates alone are sufficient to falsify the whole legend of the early life of Turketul the Chancellor, who, according to the legend of Ingulphus, must have solicited the Bishopric for his foster-brother, when they were both in the nurse's arms.

The account of Turketul's life does not increase in probability as we proceed. We shall not stop, on this occasion, to inquire into the history of the Chancery. It is sufficient to observe, that, if a Cancellarius' existed amongst the officers of the AngloSaxon court, he was nothing more than a notary or scribe, entirely destitute of the high authority which Ingulphus bestows upon him.

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Turketul is afterwards introduced as a warrior, leading on the Londoners and the host of Mercia at the battle of Brunnanburgh. Though he mainly contributed to the victory, his exploits were bloodless he was so fortunate as to avoid killing or wounding any of the enemies whom he defeated. Lastly, he appears as the restorer of the ruined, monastery at Croyland, of which he became the Abbot. His regulations for the government of the monastery are given at full length. He divided the community into three classes. Until the monks had been professed + Malm. 26. Matt. West. 181.

* Ingulph. 36.

+ Ingulph. 37.

for twenty-four years, they shared in every labour of the cloister, and in all the duties of the choir. During the next sixteen years, they were relieved from some of the minor devotions, but still they were considered as juniors;' and forty years profession elapsed before they attained the 'senior' degree, in which they were excused from participating in all offices of bodily fatigue and responsibility. After fifty years' profession, the monk became a 'sempecta he obtained a separate chamber, an attendant was assigned to him, and every privilege was allowed which could ensure the enjoy ment of bodily and mental ease, until the termination of his life.* These curious details are unluckily destitute of extrinsic confirmation. The monastic degree of the sempectæ cannot be traced in the history or records of Croyland, or of any other monastery in Christendom. The name barely occurs in Palladius, a Greek writer of the fifth century. But by Palladius it is used in a sense diametrically opposite; not as signifying the monk or solitary, but the young disciple who attended upon him. And the employment of the term in Ingulphus may induce the suspicion that the writer stumbled upon the strange sounding word without apprehending its proper application.t

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In the portion of the work which Ingulphus claims as his own, many long and important charters of Edgar and his successors are incorporated in the narrative. A second conflagration, the effect of accident, destroyed the ill-fated monastery, which was built almost entirely of timber, in the year 1091; and, although the charter-room was strongly vaulted with stone, still the intense heat of the fire reduced its contents to ashes. Ingulphus, however, easily accounts for the preservation of the documents which he sets forth. The monks had not only duplicates, but even triplicates of many charters. These had been separated from the rest by Ingulphus: they were delivered by him to Fulmar the chaunter, in order that the younger monks might become acquainted with the Saxon character; and, having been secured in a coffer which was deposited in the cloister, they were fortunately preserved. This statement, however, derives no support from the charters which the author has used. The Norman phraseology in which they are clothed, though it shows at once that Ingulphus only presents the reader with modernized paraphrases, is not entirely inconsistent with the existence of Saxon originals: but this admission cannot be extended to charters entirely founded upon Norman customs of which no traces are found in Saxon

* Ingulph. 48, 49.

The discussions respecting this term may be consulted in Mr. Gough's Additions to the History of Croyland, p. 273, to which we refer the curious reader.

Ingulph, 96, 97,

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