327 CHAPTER V. THE ABBEY BEFORE THE REFORMATION. WE have hitherto considered the Abbey in reference to the general history of the country. It now remains to track its connection with the ecclesiastical establishment of The Monwhich it formed a part, and which, in its turn, has astery. peculiar points of contact with the outer world. This inquiry naturally divides itself into the periods before and after the Reformation, though it will be impossible to keep the two entirely distinct. There is, however, one peculiarity which belongs almost equally to both, and constitutes the main distinction both of the Monastery' of the west' from other Benedictine establishments, and of the Collegiate Church' of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster from cathedrals in general. The Monastery and Church of Westminster were, as we have seen, enclosed within the precincts of the Palace of Westminster as completely as the Abbey of Holyrood3 and the Convent of the Escurial were united with those palaces of tion with the Scottish and Spanish sovereigns. The Abbey was, in fact, a Royal Chapel on a gigantic scale. The King had a private entrance to it through the South Transept, almost direct from the Confessor's Hall, as well as a cloister communicating with the great entrance for State processions in the North Transept. Even to this day, in official language, the coronations 2 Its connec the Palace. are said to take place in Our Palace at Westminster,'' though the Sovereign never sets foot in the Palace strictly so called, and the whole ceremony is confined to the Abbey, which for the time passes entirely into the possession of the Crown and its officers. Its independence. From this peculiar connection of the Abbey with the Palace -of which many traces will appear as we proceed-arose the independence of its ecclesiastical constitution and its dignitaries from all other authority within the kingdom. Even in secular matters, it was made the centre of a separate jurisdiction in the adjacent neighbourhood. Very early in its history, Henry III. pitted the forces of Westminster against the powerful citizens of London.2 Some of its privileges at the instance of the Londoners 3 were removed by Edward I. But whatever show of independence the City of Westminster still possesses, it owes to a reminiscence of the ancient grandeur of its Abbey. So completely was the Monastery held to stand apart from the adjacent metropolis, that a journey of the monastic officers to London, and even to the manor of Paddington, is described as an excursion which is not to be allowed. without express permission. The Dean is still the shadowy head of a shadowy corporation and on the rare occasions of pageants which traverse the whole metropolis, the Dean, with his High Steward and High Bailiff, succeeds to the Lord Mayor at Temple Bar.5 In former times, down to the close of the last century, the Dean possessed, by virtue of this position, considerable power in controlling the elections, even then stormy, of the important constituency of Westminster. In like manner the See of London, whilst it stretches on every side, has never but once penetrated the precincts of Westminster. The Dean, as the Abbot before him, still remains supreme under the Crown. The legend of the visit of St. Peter See London Gazettes of 1838. • Utinam non in aliorum læsionem,' is an anno tation by some jealous hand. Ridgway, pp. 52, 207; Rishanger, A.D. 1277. • Ware, 170. As in the reception of the Princess Alexandra in 1862. It was usual, down to the seventeenth century, for the Lord Mayors of London, after they had been sworn into office in Westminster Hall, to come to the Abbey, to the fisherman had for one express object the protection of the Abbey against the intrusion of the Bishop of London.' 'From that time there was no King so undevout that durst it 'violate, or so holy a Bishop that durst it consecrate.'' The claims to be founded on the ruins of a Temple of Apollo, and by King Sebert, have the suspicious appearance of being stories intended to counteract the claims of St. Paul's Cathedral to the Temple of Diana, and of its claim to that royal patronage.3 Even the haughty Dunstan was pressed into the service, and was made, in a spurious charter, to have relinquished his rights as Bishop of London. The exemption was finally determined in the trial between Abbot Humez and Bishop Fauconberg, in the thirteenth century, when it was decided in favour of the Abbey by a court of referees; whilst the manor of Sudbury was given. as a compensation to the Bishop, and the church of Sudbury to St. Paul's Cathedral. An Archdeacon of Westminster, who is still elected by the Chapter, exercised, under them for many years, an archidiaconal jurisdiction 5 in the Consistory Court under the South-western Tower. In the sacred services of the Abbey neither Archbishop nor Bishop, except in the one incommunicable rite of Coronation, was allowed to take part without the permission of the Abbot, as now of the Dean. When Archbishop Turbine consecrated Bernard Bishop of St. David's, that Queen Maud might see it, probably in St. Catherine's Chapel, it was with the special concession of the Abbot. When the Bishop of Lincoln presided at the funeral of Eleanor, it was because the Abbot (Wenlock) had quarrelled with Archbishop Peckham.' From the time of Elizabeth, the privilege of burying great personages has been entirely confined to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. From the first occasion of the assembling of the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury within the precincts of Westminster, down to the present day, the Archbishop has always been met by a protest, as from the Abbot so from the Dean, against any infringement of the privileges of the Abbey. The early beginnings of the Monastery have been already traced. Its distinct history first appears after the THE Conquest, and is concentrated almost entirely in the ABBOTS. Abbots. As in all greater convents, the Abbots were personages 1 See Chapter I., pp. 8, 17. 2 More's Life of Richard IJI. 177. the privileges in detail, see Flete, c. ii. xii. 5 Wills were proved there till 1674. Eadmer, p. 116. 'Ridgway, pp. 103, 101; Wykes. of nearly episcopal magnitude, and in Westminster their peculiar relation to the Crown added to their privileges. The Abbots since the Conquest, according to the Charter of the Confessor, were, with two exceptions (Humez and Boston), all chosen from the Convent itself. They ranked, in dignity, next after the Abbots of St. Albans. A royal licence was always required for their election," as well as for their entrance into possession. The election itself required a confirmation, obtained in person from the Pope, who, however, sometimes deputed the duty of installation to a Bishop. On their accession they dropped their own surnames, and took the names of their birthplaces, as if by a kind of peerage. They were known, like sovereigns, by their Christian names-as 'Richard the First,' or 'Richard the Second '3- and signed themselves as ruling over their communities by the grace of God.' They were to be honoured as "Vicars of Christ.' When the Abbot passed, every one was to rise. To him alone the monks confessed. A solemn benediction answered in his case to an episcopal consecration. If, after his election, he died before receiving this, he was to be buried like any other monk; but otherwise, his funeral was to be on the most sumptuous scale, and the anniversary of his death to be always celebrated." Edwin, Edwin, the first Abbot of whom anything is known, was probably, through his friendship with the Confessor, the secret founder of the Abbey itself. He, though as long as 1049-68. he lived he faithfully visited the tomb of his friend, accommodated himself with wonderful facility to the Norman Conqueror, and in that facility laid the foundation of the most regal residence in England. Amongst the Confessor's donations to Westminster, there was one on which the Conqueror set his affections, for his retreat for hunting, by reason of the Origin of pureness of the air, the pleasantness of the situation, Castle. ' and its neighbourhood to wood and waters.' It was the estate of the winding' of the Thames-Windsor.' Windsor 6 This imperfect; but for the funerals see the Islip Roll, and for the general privi leges, see Chronicle of Abingdon, ii, 336-350. Neale, i. 29. Windles-ore, not the winding-shore,' as is generally said; but, as I have been informed by a learned Scandinavian scholar, the winding sandbank,' or 'the sandspit in a winding,' as in Helsing-or (Elsinore). the Abbot conceded to the King, and received in return some lands in Essex, and a mill at Stratford; in recollection of which the inhabitants of Stepney, Whitechapel, and Stratford used to come to the Abbey at Whitsuntide; and two bucks from the forest of Windsor were always sent the Abbot on the Feast of St. Peter ad Vincula.2 Edwin was first buried in the Cloister; afterwards, as we shall see, in the Chapter House. 1 Vitalis, Gislebert, 1082-1114. To Edwin succeeded a series of Norman Abbots-Geoffrey, Vitalis, Gislebert, Herbert, and Gervase, a natural son of King Stephen. Geoffrey was deposed, and retired to his Geoffrey, original Abbey of Jumièges, where he was buried. In 1068-74. Vitalis's time the first History of the Abbey was 1076-82. written by one of his monks, Sulcard. Gislebert was the author of various scholastic treatises, still pre- Herbert, served in the manuscripts of the Cottonian Library.3 Gervase, Then followed Laurence, who procured from the Pope the Canonisation of the Confessor, and with it the exaltation of himself and his successors to the rank of Postard, mitred Abbot. 1140-60. Laurence, 1160-76. Walter, 1176-91. 1191-1200. 1200-14. Down to the time of Henry III. the Abbots had been buried in the eastern end of the South Cloister. Three gravestones still remain, with the rude effigies of these as yet unmitred dignitaries. But afterwards-it may be from the increasing importance of the Abbots-the Cloisters were left to the humbler denizens of the Monastery. Abbot Papillon, though Papillon, degraded from his office nine years before, was buried died 1223. in the Nave. Abbot Berking was buried in a marble 1214-22. tomb before the High Altar in the Lady Chapel, then 1227-46. just begun at his instigation. Crokesley, who suc- 1246-58. ceeded, had been the first Archdeacon of Westminster, and in his time the Abbey was exempted from all jurisdiction of the See of London. He lived in an alternation of royal shade and 1 Akermann, i. 74. 2 Cartulary; Dugdale, i. 310. 3 Neale, i. 32. • Flete MS. - The names of the Abbots were inscribed in modern times, but all wrongly. That, for example, of Gervase, who was buried under a small slab, was written on the largest gravestone in the Cloisters. The real order appears to have been this, beginning from the eastern corner of the South Cloister: Postard in front of the dinner-bell; Crispin and Herbert under the second bench from the bell; Vitalis Humez, Berking, Crokesley, (under a small slab) and Gislebert (with an effigy) at the foot of Gervase (under a small stone); Humez (with an effigy) at the head of Gervase. The dinner-bell probably was hung in what was afterwards known as Littlington's Belfry. It was removed when Henry VII.'s Chapel was built, and his grave is now at the steps leading to it. The grey stone and brass were visible till late in the last century. (Crull, p. 117; Seymour's Stow, ii. 613.) |