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more celebrated basilica of St. Peter at Rome, it may be said that super hanc Petram' the Church of Westminster has been built.

Round the undoubted fact that this devotion to St. Peter was Edward's prevailing motive, gathered, during his own lifetime or immediately after, the various legends which give it form and shape in connection with the special peculiarities of the Abbey.

of Wor

There was in the neighbourhood of Worcester, far from 'men in the wilderness, on the slope of a wood, in a cave, deep 'down in the grey rock,' a holy hermit' of great age, Legend of 'living on fruits and roots.' One night, when, after the Hermit reading in the Scriptures how hard are the pains of cester. 'hell, and how the enduring life of Heaven is sweet and to be 'desired,' he could neither sleep nor repose, St. Peter appeared to him, bright and beautiful, like to a clerk,' and warned him to tell the King that he was released from his vow; that on that very day his messengers would return from Rome; that 'at Thorney, two leagues from the city,' was the spot marked out where, in an ancient church, situated low,' he was to establish a Benedictine monastery, which should be 'the gate ' of heaven, the ladder of prayer, whence those who serve St. 'Peter there shall by him be admitted into Paradise.' The hermit writes the account of the vision on parchment, seals it with wax, and brings it to the King, who compares it with the answer of the messengers just arrived from Rome, and determines on carrying out the design as the Apostle had ordered.'

Edric the

Another legend 2 still more precise developed the attractions of the spot still further. In the vision to the Worcestershire hermit, St. Peter was reported to have said that he Legend of had consecrated the church at Thorney with his own fisherman. hands. How this came to pass was now circulated in versions slightly varying from each other, but of which the main features agreed. It was on a certain Sunday night in the reign of King Sebert, the eve of the day fixed by Mellitus, first Bishop of London, for the consecration of the original monastery in the Isle of Thorns, that a fisherman of the name

Cambridge Life, 1740: Oxford Life, 270.

2 That this story was not in existence before the Confessor's reign, appears from its absence in the original charter of Edgar (Widmore's Inquiry, p. 22).

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The first trace of it is the allusion in the Confessor's charters, if genuine (Kemble, vol. iv. §§ 824-6). It does not appear in the contemporary Harleian Life, but is fully developed in Sulcard and Ailred.

of Edric was casting his nets from the shore of the island into the Thames. On the other side of the river, where Lambeth now stands, a bright light attracted his notice. He crossed, and found a venerable personage, in foreign attire, calling for some one to ferry him over the dark stream. Edric consented. The stranger landed, and proceeded at once to the church. On his way he evoked with his staff the two springs of the island. The air suddenly became bright with a celestial splendour. The building stood out clear, without darkness or shadow.' A host of angels, descending and reascending, with sweet odours and flaming candles, assisted, and the church was dedicated with the usual solemnities. The fisherman remained in his boat, so awestruck by the sight, that when the mysterious visitant returned and asked for food, he was obliged to reply that he had caught not a single fish. Then the stranger revealed his name: 'I am Peter, keeper of the keys of Heaven. 'When Mellitus arrives to-morrow, tell him what you have seen; and show him the token that I, St. Peter, have conse'crated my own Church of St. Peter, Westminster, and have 'anticipated the Bishop of London.2 For yourself, go out into the river; you will catch a plentiful supply of fish, whereof 'the larger part shall be salmon. This I have granted on two ' conditions-first, that you never fish again on Sundays; secondly, that you pay a tithe of them to the Abbey of West'minster.'

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The next day, at dawn, 'the Bishop Mellitus rises, and begins to prepare the anointing oils and the utensils for the 'great dedication.' He, with the King, arrives at the appointed hour. At the door they are met by Edric with the salmon in his hand, which he presents from St. Peter in a gentle manner ' to the Bishop.' He then proceeds to point out the marks of 'the twelve crosses on the church, the walls within and without ' moistened with holy water, the letters of the Greek alphabet 'written twice over distinctly on the sand' of the now sacred island, the traces of the oil, and (chiefest of the miracles) the 'droppings of the angelic candles.' The Bishop professed himself entirely convinced, and returned from the church, 'satisfied that the dedication had been performed sufficiently, better,

Cambridge Life, 2060; Sulcard in Dugdale's Monasticon, i. 289. Episcopalem benedictionem meæ

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'sanctificationis auctoritate præveni.' (Ailred, cc. 385, 386. Sporley and Sulcard in Dugdale, i. 288, 289.)

' and in a more saintly fashion than a hundred such as he could 'have done.''

The story is one which has its counterparts in other churches. The dedication of Einsiedlen, in Switzerland, and that of the rock at Le Puy, in Auvergne,2 were ascribed to angelic agency. The dedication of the chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury was ascribed to Christ Himself, who appeared to warn off St. David, as St. Peter at Westminster did. Mellitus. St. Nicholas claimed to have received his restored pall, and St. Denys the sacraments of the Church, from the same source, and not from any episcopal or priestly hands. All these legends have in common the merit of containing a lurking protest against the necessity of external benediction for things or persons sacred by their own intrinsic virtue-a covert declaration of the great catholic principle (to use Hooker's words) that God's grace is not tied to outward forms.' But the Westminster tradition possesses, besides, the peculiar charm of the local colouring of the scene, and betrays the peculiar motives whence it arose. We are carried back by it to the times when the wild Thames, with its fishermen and its salmon, was still an essential feature of the neighbourhood of the Abbey. We see in it the importance attached to the name of the Apostle. We see also the union of innocent fiction with worldly craft, which marks so many legends both of Pagan and Christian times. It represents the earliest protest of the Abbots of Westminster against the jurisdiction of the Bishops of London. It was recited by them long afterwards as the solid foundation of the inviolable right of sanctuary in Westminster. It contains the claim established by them on the tithe of the Thames fisheries from Gravesend to Staines. A lawsuit was successfully carried by the Convent of Westminster against the Rector of Rotherhithe, in 1282, on the ground that St. Peter had granted the first haul. The parish clergy, however, struggled against the claim, and the monastic historian Flete, in the gradually

increasing scarcity of salmon, saw a Divine judgment on the fishermen for not having complied with St. Peter's request. Once a year, as late as 1382, one of the fishermen, as representative of Edric, took his place beside the Prior, and brought in a salmon for St. Peter. It was carried in state through the middle of the Refectory. The Prior and the whole fraternity rose as it passed up to the high table, and then the fisherman received ale and bread from the cellarer in return for the fish's tail.1

Legend of

The little Church or Chapel of St. Peter, thus dignified by the stories of its first origin, was further believed to have been specially endeared to Edward by two miracles, reported the Cripple. to have occurred within it in his own lifetime. The first was the cure of a crippled Irishman, Michael, who sate in the road between the Palace and the Chapel of St. Peter, 'which was near,' and who explained to the inexorable Hugolin that, after six pilgrimages to Rome in vain, St. Peter had promised his cure if the King would, on his own royal neck, carry him to the monastery. The King immediately consented; and, amidst the scoffs of the Court, bore the poor man to the steps of the High Altar. There he was received by Godric the sacristan, and walked away on his own restored feet, hanging his stool on the wall for a trophy.2

of the

Before that same High Altar was also believed to have been seen one of the Eucharistical portents, so frequent in the MidLegend dle Ages. A child, 'pure and bright like a spirit,' Sacrament. appeared to the King in the sacramental elements.3 Leofric, Earl of Mercia, who, with his famous countess Godiva, was present, saw it also. The King imposed secrecy upon them during his life. The Earl confided the secret to a holy man at Worcester (perhaps the hermit before mentioned), who placed the account of it in a chest, which, after all concerned were dead, opened of itself and revealed the sacred deposit.

Such as these were the motives of Edward. Under their influence was fixed what has ever since been the local centre of the English monarchy and nation-of the Palace and the Legislature no less than of the Abbey.

There had, no doubt, already existed, by the side of the Thames, an occasional resort of the English Kings. But the Roman fortress in London, or the Saxon city of Winchester, had

Pennant's London, p. 57.

2 Cambridge Life, 1920-2020.

Cambridge Life, 2515-55. It appears on the screen of the chapel.

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been hitherto their usual abode. Edward himself had formerly spent his time chiefly at his birthplace, Islip, or at Palace of the rude palace on the rising ground, still marked minster. by various antique remains, above Old Windsor.' But now, for the sake of superintending the new Church at Westminster, he lived, more than any previous king, in the regal residence (which he in great part rebuilt) close beside it. The Abbey and the Palace grew together, and into each other, in the closest union: just as in Scotland, a few years later, Dunfermline Palace and Dunfermline Abbey sprang up side by side; and again, Holyrood Abbey-first within the Castle of Edinburgh, and then on its present site-by Holyrood Palace. The Chamber of St. Edward,' as it was called from him, or the 'Painted Chamber,' from its subsequent decorations, was the kernel of the Palace of Westminster. This fronted what is still called the 'Old Palace Yard,' as distinguished from the New 'Palace of William Rufus, of which the only vestige is the framework of the ancient Hall, looking out on what, from its novelty at that time, was called the New Palace Yard,''New,' like the New Castle' of the Conqueror, or the New 'College' of Wykeham.

The privileges which the King was anxious to obtain for the new institution were in proportion to the magnificence of his design, and the difficulties encountered for this purpose are a proof of the King's eagerness in the cause. As always in such cases, it was necessary to procure a confirmation of these privileges from the Pope. The journey to Rome was, Journey to in those troubled times, a serious affair. The deputa- Rome. tion consisted of Aldred,3 who had lately been translated from Worcester to York; the King's two chaplains, Gyso and Walter; Tosti and Gurth, the King's brothers-in-law; and Gospatrick, kinsman of the Confessor and companion of Tosti. Some of the laymen had taken this opportunity to make their pilgrimage to the graves of the Apostles. The Archbishop of York had also his own private ends to serve-the grant of the pall for York, and a dispensation to retain the see of Worcester. The Pope refused his request, on the not unreasonable

1 Runny Mede, the meadow of 'assemblies,' derives its name and its original association from this neighbourhood of the royal residence.

* Cambridge Life, 2325. Kemble, §§ 824, 825. See Chapter V.

The

exact statement of these privileges depends on the genuineness of the charters, but their general outline is unquestionable.

3 Harleian Life, 755 80