We thus see Harold at the greatest height of real power which he ever attained while still a subject. He was Earl of the West-Saxons and principal counsellor of the King, and he was, in all probability, already looked on as the practical heir presumptive to the Crown. Three other great Earldoms were in the hands of his three brothers. The greatness of the House of Godwine seemed now to be fully established. Save for a single moment, and that probably during Harold’s absence from England, the authority of Harold and his family remained untouched till quite the |Predominance of ecclesiastical affairs.| end of Eadward’s reign. The first few years of this period form a time of unusual quiet, a time in which, as is usual in times of quiet, our attention is almost wholly |Harold in relation to the Church.| occupied with ecclesiastical affairs. The great Earl now appears as something like an ecclesiastical reformer, as a founder, a pilgrim, the fast friend of one holy Bishop, a rightful or wrongful disputant against another Prelate of less renown. But we have evidence that care for the Church did not occupy the whole of the attention of Earl Harold. The Earldom of Wessex and the Kingdom of England had still to be watched over; and the candidate for a Crown which was likely to be disputed by the Duke of the Normans kept a diligent eye on all that was going on in the lands beyond the sea.
Harold, like Cnut and like a crowd of other persons great and small, fell in with the popular devotion of the day with regard to pilgrimages. The Earl of the West-Saxons went to pray at the tombs of the Apostles, and, though the date of his pilgrimage is not absolutely certain, there are strong reasons for believing that it happened in the year following the deaths of the Ætheling and the Earls Leofric and Ralph.[1259] But Harold, like Cnut, did not, even while engaged in this holy work, wholly forget his own interests or the interests of his friends and his |He studies the politics of the French Princes.| country. He had, we are told, long been watching the condition, the policy, and the military force of the princes of France, among whom we cannot doubt that the Duke of the Normans came in for the largest share of his attention. He therefore took the opportunity of his pilgrimage to go through France, and by personal examination to make himself thoroughly master of the politics of the land.[1260] His name was well known in the country; he was doubtless received everywhere with honour; he did not go on till he had gained such a thorough insight into all that he needed to know that no deception could for the future be practised upon him. This description is vague and dark, no doubt purposely vague and dark; but it doubtless veils a good deal. One longs to know whether Harold was at this time personally received at the Court of Rouen, and what was the general result of his inquiries into the policy of his great rival. And the question at once forces itself upon the mind, Was this the time of Harold’s famous oath or homage to William? Did anything happen on this journey which formed the germ out of which grew the great accusation brought against him by his rival? I reserve the full discussion of all these questions for another occasion; but on the whole it seems more likely that the event, whatever it was, on which the charge of perjury against Harold was founded, took place at some time nearer to the death of Eadward.
When Harold had finished his political inquiries in France, he continued his religious journey to Rome. If I am right in the date which I assign to his pilgrimage, he found the Holy See in the possession of a Pontiff whom the Church has since agreed to brand as an usurper. Early in |Stephen the Ninth Pope. 1057–1058.| this year died Pope Stephen the Ninth, otherwise Frederick of Lotharingia, Abbot of Monte Casino, after a reign of |Benedict the Tenth Pope. 1058–1059.| only one year.[1261] On his death, Mincius, Bishop of Velletri and Cardinal, was placed in an irregular manner on the pontifical throne by the influence of the Counts of Tusculum.[1262] He took the name of Benedict the Tenth. The Cardinals seem not to have acknowledged him; Hildebrand—the first time that great name occurs in our history—obtained the consent of the Empress Agnes to a |Nicolas the Second Pope. 1059–1061.| new and more canonical election. In the next April Benedict was driven out, and the new Pope, Gerard of Burgundy, Bishop of Florence, was enthroned by the name of Nicolas the Second.[1263] But, for the space of a year, Benedict had actual possession of the Papal throne, and was seemingly generally recognized in Rome. A Roman, of the house of the famous Consul Crescentius, he was probably more acceptable than a more regularly appointed Pontiff from Lotharingia or Burgundy. Benedict was in all probability the Pope whom Earl Harold found in |Benedict grants the pallium to Stigand, 1058; probably through the influence of Harold.| possession at the time of his pilgrimage. It is certain that Benedict sent to Archbishop Stigand the long delayed ornament of the pallium, the cherished badge of the archiepiscopal dignity.[1264] One can hardly avoid the surmise that Harold pleaded for his friend, and that the concession to the English Primate was the result of the personal presence of the first of living Englishmen. Stigand was not personally present at Rome; the pallium was sent to him, and most likely Earl Harold himself was its bearer. In this act Harold no doubt thought, and naturally thought, that he was healing a breach, and doing a great service to his Church and country. The evils arising from the doubtful position of Stigand were manifest. That a man should be, in the eye of the Law, Archbishop of Canterbury, and yet that his purely spiritual ministrations should be very generally declined, was an anomaly to which it was desirable to put a stop as soon as might be. Harold would naturally deem that he had done all that could be needed by procuring the solemn recognition of Stigand from the Pope whom he found in actual possession of the Holy See. That Pope Benedict was himself an usurper, that his ministrations were as irregular as those of Stigand himself, that he could not confer a commission which he did not himself possess, was a canonical subtlety which was not likely to occur to the mind of the English Earl. He could not foresee that an ecclesiastical revolution would so soon hurl Benedict from his throne, and that he and all who clave to |Effects of Benedict’s recognition.| him would be branded as schismatics. In fact the recognition of Stigand by Benedict did harm instead of good. After Benedict’s fall, it became a further charge against Stigand that he had received the pallium from the usurper. For the moment indeed the Archbishop seemed |Bishops consecrated by Stigand.| to have regained his proper position. Two Bishopricks fell vacant in the course of the year, Selsey by the death of Heaca, and Rochester, it is not quite clear how.[1265] The newly appointed Bishops, Æthelric of Selsey and Siward of Rochester, received consecration from a Primate who was now at last held to be in canonical possession.[1266] The fact is most significant that these were the first and last Bishops whom Stigand consecrated during the reign of Eadward.
Harold returned to England, having by some means, the exact nature of which is lost in the rhetoric of his panegyrist, escaped the dangers which seem to have specially beset pilgrims on their journey homeward.[1267] If I am right in my conjecture as to the date of his pilgrimage, an event had taken place in his absence which showed the weakness of the government when his strong hand was not nigh |Second outlawry and return of Ælfgar. 1058.| to guide it. We are told by a single Chronicler that this year Earl Ælfgar was again outlawed, but that he soon recovered his Earldom by the help of Gruffydd and of a Norwegian fleet which came unexpectedly to his help.[1268] We hear not a word as to the causes or circumstances. |Difficulties as to the story.| One is inclined to guess that the story may be merely an accidental repetition, under a wrong year, of Ælfgar’s former outlawry three years before.[1269] It is certainly not likely that Harold would have tamely submitted to so outrageous a breach both of the royal authority and of the national dignity. But to suppose that these events happened during the time of his absence from the country is an explanation of this difficulty quite as easy as to suppose the story to be a mere misconception. One thing at least should be noted. A feud with the House of Leofric, which, in the case of Harold, is a mere matter of surmise, is, in the case of Tostig, distinctly asserted by a contemporary writer.[1270] It is quite possible that Tostig may, in his brother’s absence, have acted a part towards the rival house which his brother’s conciliatory policy would not have approved of. He may also have found himself, in his brother’s absence, unable to quell the storm which he had raised. But all speculations of this kind must be quite uncertain. The statement stands before us; we may put our own value on its authority, and we may make our own explanation of the facts, but we cannot get beyond conjecture.
The pilgrimage of Earl Harold may perhaps have suggested to the active Bishop Ealdred a longer pilgrimage still. That diligent Prelate was at this time busy about |Ecclesiastical history of Gloucester.| many matters. Gloucester, the frontier city on the Severn, the usual mid-winter seat of the national Councils, had just received a special ornament from his munificence. |Abbey of Nuns, 681–767.| The city had been in early times the seat of an Abbey of nuns, which came to an end during the confusions which fell on the Mercian Kingdom towards the end of the eighth |Secular College, 767?-1022.| century.[1271] The house then became a College of secular priests,[1272] which lasted till the days of Cnut. In the same spirit in which Cnut himself substituted monks for |Benedictine Abbey, 1022–1539.| secular canons in the Church of Saint Eadmund at Bury,[1273] Wulfstan, Archbishop of York and Bishop of Worcester, |Cathedral Church, 1541–1868.| made the same change in the Church of Saint Peter at Gloucester.[1274] The rule of Saint Benedict was now rigidly |Abbot Eadric. 1022–1058.| carried out, and one Eadric became the first Abbot. His government lasted for more than thirty-six years, but his local reputation is not good, as he is charged with wasting |Ealdred rebuilds and consecrates the church, and appoints Wulfstan Abbot. 1058.| the property of the monastery.[1275] Meanwhile the bounty of Ealdred rebuilt the church of Saint Peter from its foundations, and it now stood ready for consecration. Abbot Eadric most opportunely died at this time, so that Ealdred was able at once to furnish his new minster with a new chief ruler. He consecrated the church, and bestowed the abbatial benediction on Wulfstan, a monk of his own church of Worcester, on whom, by the King’s licence, he conferred the vacant office.[1276] It was just at this time that |Ealdred restores the see of Ramsbury to Hermann and makes the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.| Bishop Hermann came back from Saint Omer. Ealdred, charged with the care of three dioceses, restored Ramsbury, the poorest and least distinguished, to its former owner.[1277] Worcester was no doubt entrusted to the care of Æthelwig;[1278] of any arrangements for the benefit of Hereford we hear nothing. Ealdred then undertook a journey which no English Bishop had ever before undertaken,[1279] which indeed we have not heard of as undertaken by any eminent Englishman of that generation, except by the repentant Swegen. Duke Robert of Normandy and Count Fulk of Anjou had visited the tomb of Christ, but Cnut and Harold had not gone further than the threshold of the Apostles. But Ealdred now undertook the longer journey; he passed through Hungary,[1280] a country which the negotiations for the return of the Ætheling had doubtless opened to English imaginations, and at last reached the holy goal of his pilgrimage. He went, we are told, with such worship as none ever went before him; his devotion was edifying and his gifts were splendid. A chalice of gold, of five marks weight, and of wondrous workmanship, was the offering of the renowned English Prelate at the most sacred spot on earth.[1281]
The next year is one singularly barren of English events. The Chronicles literally record nothing of greater importance than the fact that the steeple of Peterborough minster was hallowed.[1282] The zeal and bounty of Abbot Leofric[1283] was busily at work. And from other sources all that is to be learned is the appointment of a new Abbot of Evesham. That appointment however was in some |Resignation of Abbot Mannig of Evesham. 1059. [His death. Jan. 5, 1066.]| respects a remarkable one. Abbot Mannig, the architect, painter, and general proficient in the arts, had been smitten by paralysis, and had resigned his office. He lived however in honour for seven years longer, and died, so it was said, on the same day and hour as King Eadward.[1284] His successor was Æthelwig, the monk who acted for Ealdred when absent from his diocese, and who was now Provost of the monastery of Evesham.[1285] As in the case of Wulfstan at Gloucester, we hear nothing distinctly of any capitular election. The retiring Abbot seems to nominate his successor. Pleading his illness as an excuse for not coming personally, he sends certain monks and laymen to |Æthelwig Abbot. April 23, 1059.| the King, recommending Æthelwig for the Abbacy. The King approves, and, by his order, Ealdred gives the abbatial benediction to Æthelwig at Gloucester in the Easter Gemót holden in that city.[1286] Of the new Prelate we shall hear again more than once.
This year however was by no means an unimportant one in English history. It was now that, as all our Chronicles so carefully note, the intruding Benedict was deposed, and Nicolas succeeded to the Papacy. The recognition of Stigand lasted no longer than the temporary recognition of Benedict. When the Pontiff from whom he had received his pallium sank to the position of an Antipope and schismatic, the English Primate sank again to the anomalous position in which he had been before. His ministrations were again avoided, even in the quarter which one would have least expected to find affected by such scruples. Earl Harold himself, when he needed the performance of a great ecclesiastical ceremony, now shrank from having it performed by the hands of the Primate who, in all political matters, was his friend and fellow-worker.
For we have now reached the date of an event which closely binds together the ecclesiastical and the secular history of the time. It was in the year following the expulsion of Benedict that Earl Harold brought to perfection the minster which he had doubtless for some time been engaged in rearing on his East-Saxon lordship of Waltham. Whether any portion of the fabric still existing is the work of its great founder is a matter of antiquarian controversy on which I will not here enlarge. But whether the existing nave, or any part of it, be Harold’s work or not, the historic interest of that memorable spot remains in either case the same. As we go on we shall see Waltham win for itself an abiding fame as the last resting-place of its great founder; at present we have to look to the foundation itself as a most remarkable witness to that |Nature and importance of the foundation| founder’s wisdom as well as his bounty.[1287] The importance of the foundation of Waltham in forming an estimate, both of Harold’s personal character and of the ecclesiastical |generally misunderstood.| position of England at the time, has been altogether slurred over through inattention to the real character of the foundation. Every writer of English history, as far as I know, has wholly misrepresented its nature. It is constantly spoken of as an Abbey, and its inhabitants as monks.[1288] Waltham and its founder thus get mixed up with the vulgar crowd of monastic foundations, the creations in many cases of a real and enlightened piety, but in many cases also of mere superstition or mere fashion. The great ecclesiastical foundation of Earl Harold was something |Change of foundation by Henry the Second. 1177.| widely different. Harold did not found an Abbey; Waltham did not become a religious house till Henry the Second, liberal of another man’s purse, destroyed Harold’s foundation by way of doing honour to the new Martyr of Canterbury. Harold founded a Dean and secular Canons; these King Henry drove out, and put in an Abbot and Austin Canons in their place.[1289] Harold’s foundation, in short, was an enlargement of the original small foundation of Tofig the Proud.[1290] Tofig had built a church for the reception of the miraculous crucifix which had been found at Lutegarsbury, and had made an endowment for two priests only. The Holy Rood of Waltham became an object of popular worship and pilgrimage, and probably the small settlement originally founded by Tofig in the middle of the forest was already growing into a considerable town. |Æthelstan son of Tofig and his son Esegar.| The estate of Tofig at Waltham had been lost by his son Æthelstan,[1291] and was confiscated to the Crown. I have already suggested that Æthelstan, the son of a Danish father, may not improbably have been one of the party which opposed the election of Eadward, and most of whose members suffered more or less on that account.[1292] But the royal disfavour which fell on Æthelstan did not extend to his son Esegar, who held the office of Staller from a very early period |Acquisition of Waltham by Harold.| of Eadward’s reign till the Norman invasion.[1293] But the lordship of Waltham was granted by the King to his brother-in-law Earl Harold,[1294] with whom it evidently became a |He rebuilds the Church.| favourite dwelling-place. The Earl now rebuilt the small church of Tofig on a larger and more splendid scale, no doubt calling to his aid all the resources which were supplied by the great contemporary developement of architecture in Normandy.[1295] One who so diligently noted all that was going on in contemporary Gaul would doubtless keep his eye on such matters also. When the church was built, he enriched it with precious gifts and relics of all |He founds the College.| sorts, some of which he had himself brought personally from Rome on his pilgrimage.[1296] Lastly, he increased the number of clergy attached to the church from two to a much larger number, a Dean and twelve Canons, besides several inferior officers.[1297] He richly endowed them with lands, and contemplated larger endowments still.
This is something very different from the foundation of a monastery. Harold finds a church on his estate the seat of a popular worship; he rebuilds the fabric and increases the number of its ministers. The order of his proceedings is very clearly traced out in the royal charter by which the foundation was confirmed two years later. The founder of a monastery first got together his monks, and gave them some temporary habitation; the church and the other buildings then grew up gradually. The church of a monastery exists for the sake of the monks, but in a secular foundation the canons or other clergy may be said to exist for the sake of the church. So at Waltham, Harold first rebuilt the church; he then secured to it the elder endowment of Tofig; he had it consecrated, and enriched it with relics and other gifts; he, last of all, after the consecration, set about his plan for increasing the number of clergy attached to it.[1298] Tofig’s two priests of course were still there to discharge the duties of the place in the meanwhile. And the clergy whom Harold placed in his newly founded minster were not monks, but secular priests, each man living on his own prebend, and some of |Harold’s zeal for education.| them, it would seem, married. Education also occupied a prominent place in the magnificent and enlightened scheme of the great Earl.[1299] The Chancellor or Lecturer—for the word Schoolmaster conveys too humble an idea—filled a |Adelard of Lüttich.| dignified place in the College, and the office was bestowed by the founder on a distinguished man from a foreign land. We have seen throughout that, stout English patriot as Harold was, he was never hindered by any narrow insular prejudice from seeking merit wherever he could find it. Harold had seen something of the world; he had visited both France and Italy; but it was not however from any land of altogether foreign speech that he sought for coadjutors in his great work. As in the case of so many appointments of Bishops, so now, in appointing an important officer in his own College, Harold, when he looked beyond our own island, looked in the first place to the lands of kindred Teutonic speech.[1300] As Ælfred had brought over Grimbald and John the Old-Saxon, so now Harold brought over Adelard of Lüttich to be the head of the educational department of his foundation, and to be his general adviser in the whole work.[1301] Adelard had been already employed under the Emperor Henry the Third, one of the truest and most enlightened of ecclesiastical reformers, in bringing several of the churches of his dominions into better discipline. He now came over to England, became a Canon and Lecturer at Waltham, and, using his genuine Teutonic liberty, handed on his office to his son.[1302]
The truth is, as we have already seen several indications, that Harold, so far from being an ordinary founder of a monastery, was a deliberate and enlightened patron of the secular clergy. He is described in the foundation charter |Long continuance of the struggle between regulars and seculars.| of his College as their special and active friend.[1303] The old struggle which had been going on from the days of Dunstan was going on still, and it went on long after. Harold, like the elder Eadward in his foundation at Winchester, like Æthelstan in his foundation at Milton, preferred the seculars, the more practically useful class, the class less removed from ordinary human and national feelings. In his eyes even a married priest was not a monster of vice. To make such a choice in the monastic reign of Eadward, when the King on his throne was well nigh himself a monk, was worthy of Harold’s lofty and independent spirit; it was another proof of his steady and clear-sighted patriotism. In truth, of the two great foundations of this reign, Earl Harold’s College at Waltham stands in distinct opposition, almost in distinct rivalry, to King Eadward’s Abbey at Westminster. And it is not unlikely that Harold’s preference for the secular clergy may have had some share in bringing upon him the obloquy which he undergoes at the hands of so many ecclesiastical writers. It was not only the perjurer, the usurper, but the man whose hand was closed against the monk and open to the married priest, who won the hatred of Norman and monastic writers. With the coming of the Normans the monks finally triumphed. Monasticism, in one form or another, was triumphant for some ages. Harold’s own foundation was perverted from his original design; his secular priests were expelled to make room for those whom the fashion of the age looked on as holier than they. At last the tide turned; men of piety and munificence learned that the monks had got enough, and from the fourteenth century onwards, the bounty of founders took the same direction which it had taken under Æthelstan and Harold. Colleges, educational and otherwise, in the Universities and out of them, now again arose alongside of the monastic institutions which had now thoroughly |Witness of Waltham to Harold’s character.| fallen from their first love. In short, the foundation of Waltham, instead of being simply slurred over as a monastic foundation of the ordinary kind, well deserves to be dwelt upon, both as marking an æra in our ecclesiastical history, and also as bearing the most speaking witness to the real character of its illustrious founder. The care and thoughtfulness, as well as the munificence, displayed in every detail of the institution, the zeal for the advancement of learning as well as for mere ecclesiastical splendour, the liberal patronage of even foreign merit, all unite to throw a deep interest round Earl Harold’s minster, and they would of themselves be enough to win him a high place among the worthies of England. No wonder then that this noble foundation became in a peculiar manner identified with its founder; no wonder that it was to Waltham that he went for prayer and meditation in the great crisis of his life, that it was at Waltham that his body found its last resting-place, that at Waltham his memory still lived, fresh and cherished, while elsewhere calumny had fixed itself upon his glorious name. No wonder too that the local relic became a centre of national reverence; that the object of Harold’s devotion became the badge and rallying-point of English national life; that the “Holy Rood”—the Holy Rood of Waltham—became the battle-cry of England, the shout which urged her sons to victory at Stamfordbridge, and which still rose to heaven, as long as an English arm had life, in that last battle where England and her King were overthrown.
At what time the foundation of Waltham was begun is not recorded, but the church was finished and consecrated in the year 1060, the ceremony being performed on the appropriate day of the Invention of the Cross.[1304] The minster was hallowed in the presence of King Eadward and the Lady Eadgyth, and of most of the chief men of the land, clerical and lay.[1305] But the chief actor in that day’s rite was neither the Bishop of the diocese nor the |by Cynesige, Archbishop of York.| Metropolitan of the province. As Wulfstan had been brought from York to consecrate Cnut’s minster on Assandun,[1306] so this time also a Northern Primate came to consecrate Harold’s minster at Waltham. The position of Stigand, bettered for the moment through the pallium sent by Benedict, had fallen with the position of the Pontiff who had recognized him. In orthodox eyes he was again an usurper and a schismatic.[1307] Either this feeling had extended itself to the mind of Harold himself, or else he found it prudent to yield to the prejudices of others. Stigand was not called upon to officiate. It is not likely that William, the Bishop of the diocese, was excluded on account of his Norman birth, as we find no traces of any such jealousy of him at other times. The occasion was doubtless looked on as one of such dignity as to call for the ministrations of a Prelate of the highest rank. The new minster of Waltham, with its pillars fresh from the mason’s hand, and its altars blazing with the gorgeous gifts of its founder, was hallowed in all due form by Cynesige, Archbishop of York.
The church was thus completed and consecrated; but it seemingly took Harold two years longer fully to arrange the details of his foundation, and to settle the exact extent of the lands which were to form its endowment. At the end of that time the royal charter which has been already quoted confirmed all the gifts and arrangements of the founder.
The Prelate who had played the most important part in the great ceremony at Waltham did not long survive that event. Shortly before the close of the year Archbishop Cynesige died at York, and was buried at Peterborough.[1308] Communication between distant places must have been easier in those times than we are at first sight inclined to think, for it appears that the news of the event which took place at York was known and acted upon at Gloucester only three days afterwards. We read that his successor was appointed on Christmas-Day.[1309] Now the appointment would regularly be made in the Witenagemót, and the Witenagemót would, according to the custom of this reign, be holding its Christmas sitting at Gloucester. Such speed would have been impossible if the Witan had not been actually in session when the vacancy occurred. The absence of Cynesige is of course explained by his mortal illness. But his successor was on the spot, and he was no doubt on the alert to take care of |Ealdred succeeds him. Dec. 25, 1060.| his own interests. Ealdred, the Bishop of the diocese in which the Assembly was held, was raised to the metropolitan see which had been so often held in conjunction with that of Worcester. Indeed, Ealdred himself, who had not scrupled to hold three Bishopricks at once, for a while followed the vicious example of his predecessors and retained the two sees in plurality. His successor in the see of Worcester was not appointed till two years later. But the church of Hereford, which Ealdred had administered for the last two years, now received a pastor of its own. That |Walter, Bishop of Hereford. 1060–1079.| Bishoprick was given to Walter, a Lotharingian by birth, and a Chaplain of the Lady Eadgyth.[1310] Either in this year or very early in the next[1311] died Duduc, the Saxon Bishop of Somersetshire, who had sat at Wells ever since the days of Cnut. His see was given to another Lotharingian, Gisa, a |Gisa Bishop of Wells 1060–1088.| Chaplain of the King.[1312] These appointments, taken in connexion with Harold’s own appointment of Adelard in his College at Waltham, must be carefully noticed. The influence of Harold, and with it the close connexion between England and Northern Germany, is now at its height.
From one however of the Prelates now appointed the great Earl hardly met with the gratitude which he deserved. The story is one of the best illustrations of the |Dispute between Harold and Gisa. 1061–1066.| way in which stories grow.[1313] Duduc, the late Bishop of Wells, had received from King Cnut certain estates as his private property, among which, strangely enough, we find reckoned the Abbey of Gloucester. Duduc, with King Eadward’s assent, is said to have made over these estates to his own church, besides various moveable treasures which he bequeathed on his death-bed. But on the death of Duduc, Earl Harold took possession of all. The new Bishop, looking on this as an injury done to his see, rebuked the Earl both privately and openly, and even meditated a sentence of excommunication against him. He never however ventured on this final step, and Harold, on his election to the Crown, promised both to restore the lands in question and to give others as well. The fulfilment of this promise was hindered by Harold’s death, which of course the Bishop represents |Gisa’s own story of the case.| as a divine judgement. This is Gisa’s story, and we do not possess Harold’s defence. But it is to be remarked that there is nothing in Gisa’s version which at all touches any ancient possessions of the see of Wells. He speaks only of some private estates which Duduc gave, or wished to give, to his church. Gisa does not even charge Harold with seizing anything which had belonged to the see before Duduc’s time; he simply hinders Duduc’s gifts and bequests from taking effect. Gisa says nothing of any appeal to the King, but simply of an appeal made by himself to the private conscience of Harold. The natural inference is that Harold, as Earl of the country, asserted a legal claim to the lands and other property, that he disputed Duduc’s right to dispose of them, and maintained that they fell to the King, or to the Earl as his representative. As Duduc was a foreigner, dying doubtless without heirs, it is highly probable that such would really be the law of the case. At all events, as we have no statement from the defendant and a very moderate one from the plaintiff, it is only fair to stop and think whether it is not possible that there may have been something to say on the side of the Earl as well as |Exaggerations of later writers.| on that of the Bishop. In any case, the simple statement of Gisa differs widely from the exaggerations of later writers. In their stories we hear how Harold, instead of simply hindering a new acquisition by the Church of Wells, plundered it of its old established possessions. While Earl, he drives the Canons away and reduces them to beggary. As King, he seizes all the estates of the see and drives the Bishop into banishment. All this, I need not say, is utterly inconsistent with Gisa’s own narrative and with our other corroborative evidence. The story is an instructive one. By the colouring given to it by Gisa himself, and by the exaggerations which it received in later times, we may learn to look with a good deal of suspicion on all stories of the kind. The principle is that the Church is in all cases to gain and never to lose; a regular and legal opposition to ecclesiastical claims is looked on as no less criminal than one which is altogether fraudulent or violent.
Both our Lotharingian Bishops survived the Conquest; Gisa survived the Conqueror himself. There is nothing to convict either of them of treason to England; but Gisa at least does not seem very warm in his patriotism for his adopted country. He is quite ready to forgive William for the Conquest of England in consideration of the help which he gave him in his reformation of the Church of Wells.[1314] Walter, on the other hand, is represented, in some accounts, as taking a prominent part in resistance to the Conqueror.[1315] The tale rests on no good authority, but it could hardly have been told of one whose conduct was known to have been of a directly opposite kind. On the other hand, as both Walter and Gisa kept their sees till death, they must at least have shown a discreet amount of submission to the new state of things. Walter came, so we are told, to a sad and shameful end,[1316] but one in which questions of Norman, English, and Lotharingian nationality |Gisa’s changes at Wells.| were in no way concerned. Gisa lived in honour, and died in the odour of sanctity, and he fills a prominent place in the history of the Church of Wells. He found his church, small, poor, served only by four or five Canons, who lived in houses in the town, and who, we are told, doubtless by a figure of speech, had sometimes to beg their bread.[1317] Gisa obtained various gifts from King Eadward and the Lady Eadgyth, and afterwards from William,[1318] and he was also enabled to buy several valuable possessions for his church.[1319] But he is most memorable for his attempt to introduce at Wells, as Leofric had done at Exeter,[1320] the rule |1059.| of his countryman Chrodegang. Two synods held at Rome a few years earlier, one of them the second Lateran Council, had made various ordinances with the object of enforcing this rule, or one of the same character, on all cathedral and collegiate clergy. In obedience to their orders, Gisa began to reform his Church according to the Lotharingian pattern.[1321] The number of the Canons of Wells was increased, their revenues were increased also, but they were obliged to forsake their separate houses, and to use the common refectory and dormitory which Gisa built for them.[1322] This change was still more short-lived at Wells than it was at Exeter. Whatever Gisa did was undone by his immediate successor.